German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the new high-speed rail line between Erfurt and Halle/Leipzig at the central station in Leipzig, Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. Letters in the background read: “Germany’s short ways”. Sebastian Willnow/dpa via AP
PARIS —German Chancellor Angela Merkel is applauding the global pact to fight climate change that was adopted by nearly 200 nations in Paris.
Merkel said in a statement released late Saturday that the climate agreement marks “the first time that the entire world community has obligated itself to act — to act in the battle against global climate change.”
The German chancellor said while there was still a lot of work ahead, the deal is a “sign of hope that we will manage to secure the life conditions of billions of people for the future.”
The Paris agreement adopted Saturday aims to keep global warming 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.
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