Historic Pact to Slow Global Warming Is Celebrated in Paris

Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t.

French foreign minister and President of the COP21 Laurent Fabius (C) applauds while United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (L) and French President Francois Hollande applaud after the final conference of the COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change, in Le Bourget, north of Paris, Saturday, Dec.12, 2015. AP Photo/Francois Mori

LE BOURGET, France—Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t.

The “Paris agreement” aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

Loud applause erupted in the conference hall after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gaveled the agreement. Some delegates wept, others embraced.

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the traveling press following the COP21 United Nations conference on climate change in Le Bourget, near Paris, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015. Mandel Ngan/AP