"A Powerful Signal but a Weak Agreement in Paris: Global Movement for Climate Action Must Accelerate"

…[G]overnments meeting in Paris sent a clear signal to the fossil fuel industry that its era of unlimited expansion must end…However, in adopting an Agreement long on vision but short on ambition, urgency, or concrete commitments, governments left it to people and markets to provide all three…For the first time ever in an environmental treaty, the Paris Agreement acknowledges that countries should respect and promote human rights in addressing climate change. Countries’ last-minute decision to pull an explicit reference to human rights obligations from the operative text does not lessen their duty to integrate those rights in all aspects of climate action…The Paris Agreement recognizes the critical role of forests in the fight against climate change…Critically, the Agreement incorporates a package on REDD+ and related safeguards…as a policy approach to protect forests…Yet, the parties made no commitments on the scale of the funding for forest conservation efforts…