WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the Paris agreement was a turning point for the world climate.

“No agreement is perfect … negotiations that involve nearly 200 nations are always challenging,” Mr Obama said. “But this agreement represents the best chance we’ve had to save the one planet that we’ve got.”

The 195-nation UN climate summit concluded in Paris on Saturday with delegates adopting the first-ever global climate deal.

Speaking from the White House just hours after the Paris accord was signed, President Obama said the agreement’s targets for reducing greenhouse gases would pave the way to reducing global temperatures. But he acknowledged that it would not solve the problem by itself.

“Even if all the initial targets set in Paris are met, we’ll only be part of the way there when it comes to reducing carbon from the atmosphere,” he said. “So we cannot be complacent because of (the) agreement. The problem is not solved because of this accord.”

The Paris agreement, however, establishes the enduring framework the world needs to solve the climate crisis, he added. “It creates the mechanism, the architecture, for us to continually tackle this problem in an effective way,” Mr Obama said.

Although he credited the US for leading the world to this agreement, the Republican-dominated US Senate has said it would not ratify the deal.

But Mr Obama said it “sends a powerful signal that the world is firmly committed to a low carbon future”.

This commitment would persuade the world to opt for alternative energy sources and “unleash investment and innovation in clean energy at a scale we have never seen before”, Mr Obama added.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2015