On Saturday, December 12th, the global Climate Summit in Paris ended in a landmark 195-country accord which committed almost every nation in the UN to the common goal of lowering greenhouse gases. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general commented:

“This is truly a historic moment…For the first time, we have a truly universal agreement on climate change, one of the most crucial problems on earth.”

Although experts claim that the goals of the current agreement are not ambitious enough, there is widespread hope surrounding the outcome of the Paris talks, an agreement which has been almost a decade in the making after a failed attempt in Copenhagen in 2009. Many attribute the success to a recent warming in US-China relations; the two countries that are the world’s biggest polluters and have historically had a challenging bilateral relationship. In November of last year, President Obama and President Xi Jinping announced their joint plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions which was a big breakthrough for both countries and some say also laid the groundwork for Paris.

President Xi Jinping called the Paris talks “not a finish line, but a starting point”, and President Obama emphasized the need to find solutions that don’t punish people economically, but find ways to “lift people out of poverty”.

All in all, the results of the talks in Paris this weekend are a much-needed bright spot, and a source of hope for all nations. Officials from both China and the US praised the deal and seem ready to work together to fight global warming, and we can only hope that this will be the first of many steps the US and China take together as world leaders working together for a common goal.

Sources: CNN.com, the New York Times, the Guardian, Reuters