[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Leaders from 130 nations are gathering at the United Nations
[00:05.36]to sign the historic climate deal reached in Paris last December.
[00:11.84]The signing happens on the 46th anniversary of Earth Day.
[00:17.16]Since 1970, every year people around the world
[00:22.76]observe the day by doing different activities to clean up the environment.
[00:29.40]On April 22, 1970, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson
[00:35.96]organized the first Earth Day with a "national teach-in on the environment."
[00:43.00]Earth Day Network says 20 million Americans gathered in the streets,
[00:48.88]parks and meeting halls "to demonstrate for a healthy,
[00:53.36]sustainable environment" in large rallies across the country.
[00:59.56]This year, more than a billion people will celebrate the day by working for a clean environment.
[01:08.08]U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged countries to take action to fix climate change.
[01:16.92]"That is the only way which we can save this one, only, planet Earth."
[01:23.92]Island nations are very vulnerable the stronger storms
[01:29.36]and rising sea levels brought on by climate change.
[01:33.84]One example is the Pacific island of Fiji.
[01:37.72]Super Cyclone Winston crashed into the island nation last February,
[01:43.68]killing 44 people and causing $1 billion in damage.
[01:50.04]Fiji's Prime Minister Josaia Bainimarama talked about their fear about the future:
[01:58.20]"The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as Winston's is increasing.
[02:06.36]And we all have to be fearful about what this means
[02:10.36]—not only for ourselves, but for future generations."
[02:14.48]It was last December, in Paris, France that
[02:18.00]world leaders worked out the details for the historic agreement.
[02:22.76]It limits the rise in global temperatures to well below two degrees Celsius.
[02:30.44]It provides a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
[02:35.24]– those include pollution from factories and the burning of fossil fuels like coal.
[02:42.48]The agreement calls for a way to stop the effects of warming the planet.
[02:48.84]That includes moving towards using renewable energies, like
[02:53.64]wind and solar— or power from the sun.
[02:57.92]Putting the plan into action will take several steps.
[03:02.40]First, the 130 leaders gathering in New York Friday will sign the agreement.
[03:09.64]Then their governments must ratify – or formally approve it-- to put it into action.
[03:17.44]Selwin Hart is director of the U.N. Climate Change Support Team.
[03:24.20]He says the Paris Agreement must cross two important lines to become enforceable.
[03:32.36]First, at least 55 parties to the United Nations
[03:37.16]Framework Convention on Climate Change must ratify the agreement.
[03:43.68]And those 55 countries must represent 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
[03:53.56]China and the U.S. are the biggest contributors to the world's global greenhouse gases.
[04:00.80]Together, the countries are responsible for about 40 percent of the world's emissions.
[04:08.56]Both the U.S. and China support the agreement.
[04:12.36]They are pushing for its early adoption by all the nations.
[04:17.36]The target date to start the agreement is 2020.
[04:21.96]That could change.
[04:23.84]If all the countries ratify it quickly,
[04:27.52]it could happen this year, or in early 2017.
[04:33.28]I'm Anne Ball.
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