巴黎协议：一个终结化石燃料的承诺

Leaders Move to Convert Paris Climate Pledges Into Action
巴黎协议：一个终结化石燃料的承诺

PARIS ― Before the applause had even settled in the suburban convention center where the Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus Saturday night, world leaders warned that momentum for the historic accord must not be allowed to dissipate.

巴黎――上周六晚间，各国在巴黎郊外的会议中心一致通过《巴黎协议》(Paris Agreement)。就在会议中心里的热烈掌声仍然响彻耳际之时，世界领导人已经发出警告，绝不允许这个具有历史意义的协议的动力有所消退。

“Today, we celebrate,” said Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Union's energy commissioner and top climate negotiator. “Tomorrow, we have to act.”

“今天，我们欢呼庆祝，”欧盟能源委员、首席气候谈判代表米格尔・阿里亚斯・卡涅特(Miguel Arias Canete)说。“明天，我们就必须行动起来。”

With nearly every nation on earth having now pledged to gradually reduce emissions of the heat-trapping gases that are warming the planet ― a universal commitment that had eluded negotiators and activists since the first Earth Day summit meeting, in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 ― much of the burden for maintaining the momentum now shifts back to the countries to figure out, and put in place, the concrete steps needed to deliver on their pledges.

现在，几乎地球上每个国家现在都承诺逐渐减少导致全球变暖的温室气体的排放。这是自1992年首届地球日峰会在里约热内卢召开以来，谈判代表及活动人士首次获得这种普遍承诺。保持动力的大部分重担目前已转回到各个国家，它们需要制定并落实兑现承诺所需的具体步骤。

The task may prove most challenging for India, which is struggling to lift more than half of its population of 1.25 billion out of poverty and to provide basic electricity to 300 million of them. Rich countries are intent that India not get stuck on a coal-dependent development path.

这项任务可能对于印度来说尤为艰难，该国正在努力帮助超过一半的人口摆脱贫困，并为其中3亿人提供基本电力。印度的总人口为12.5亿。富裕国家则一心希望，印度不要陷入依赖煤炭的发展道路。

“It is essential that the developing countries are able to transform their energy system before they develop a level of dependence on coal that we have in the industrialized countries,” said Jan Burck of the activist group Germanwatch.

活动人士组织德国观察(Germanwatch)的扬・伯克(Jan Burck)表示，“重要的是，发展中国家在达到像发达国家一样的对煤炭的依赖水平之前，能够改变能源系统。”

During negotiations, India insisted that it would not be able to make the transition without assistance.

在谈判期间，印度坚称该国无法在没有援助的情况下完成转变。

“There will have to be new mechanisms,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters after the agreement was adopted.

印度环境部长普拉卡什・雅瓦德卡尔(Prakash Javadekar)在该协议获得通过后对记者表示，“必须要有新机制。”

China, meanwhile, is investing so heavily in clean energy that some observers think its carbon emissions might have hit a peak ― a milestone that China had only promised to reach by 2030.

与此同时，中国正在大力投资清洁能源。其巨大力度让一些观察人士认为，中国的碳排放量可能已经达到峰值。中国曾承诺在2030年前达到这一里程碑。

Its top climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said Saturday that “China will actively implement its nationally determined contributions so as to reach a peak as soon as possible,” but privately its officials have expressed pride that it no longer has the coal-stained reputation it had during the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

中国代表团团长解振华在周六表示，“中国将积极实施国家自主贡献计划，以尽快达到峰值，”但该国官员们私下表示，中国已经摆脱在2009年丹麦哥本哈根气候谈判期间被煤炭玷污的名声，他们为此感到骄傲。

Giza Gaspar Martins, an Angolan diplomat who represents the Least Developed Countries, which negotiated in Paris as a bloc, said of the accord: “This is but one stop on a long journey. This puts a system in place to do climate action, but we will have a lot of work to do.”

最不发达国家组织(Least Developed Countries)作为一个阵营在巴黎参加谈判，其代表、安哥拉外交官吉扎・加斯帕・马丁斯(Giza Gaspar Martins)提到该协议时说，“这只是漫漫长路中的一站。它提供了一个采取气候行动的系统，但我们还有很多工作要做。”

He said the pledges were designed to emphasize participation rather than ambition, but now “we have to make sure our national contributions are aligned with what the scientists tell us we need to be doing.”

他表示，这些承诺旨在强调参与而不是目标，但现在“我们需要确保各国的自主贡献计划与科学家们认定的需要采取的举措保持一致”。

Leaders here agreed that while legislation and regulation are essential to set the ground rules for the marketplace, the ultimate goal of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy will require accelerated research and investment, and technological breakthroughs.

与会的领导人们同意以下观点，即虽然需要通过法律法规为市场设定基本规则，但完成利用可再生能源替代化石燃料的最终目标则将需要加快研究、投资及技术突破的步伐。

By calling ― albeit indirectly, and in delicately crafted phrases ― for net carbon emissions to be effectively brought down to zero “in the second half of this century,” the Paris Agreement could mark “the beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel era,” as Marcelo Mena Carrasco, a Chilean biochemical engineer and climate negotiator, put it.

就像智利生化工程师、气候谈判代表马塞洛・梅纳・卡拉斯科(Marcelo Mena Carrasco)说的那样，通过要求――虽然是以间接、小心准备的措辞提出――“在本世纪下半叶”实现温室气体净零排放，《巴黎协议》可以算是标志着“终结化石燃料时代的起点”。

That is certainly the hope of the Obama administration. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. government had helped catalyze the agreement by toughening fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, cracking down on emissions from coal-fired power plants, and reaching a deal with China, the only country that emits even more greenhouse gases.

这肯定是奥巴马政府希望看到的。美国国务卿约翰・克里(John Kerry)表示，美国政府曾通过收紧汽车及轻型卡车的燃油效率标准，控制燃煤发电站的排放量，与中国达成一致，在一定程度上推动了协议的达成。中国是唯一一个比美国排放更多温室气体的国家。

President Barack Obama has endorsed the idea of a price on carbon ― in the form of a tax, or a cap-and-trade system like California's ― and leaders of Canada, Chile, Ethiopia, France, Germany and Mexico endorsed the idea at the start of the Paris conference, but there was not nearly enough support to incorporate it into the Paris Agreement.

贝拉克・奥巴马总统支持给碳定价的计划，其方式是通过征税或模仿加州设立排放限额与交易系统。该计划在巴黎峰会开始时获得了加拿大、智利、埃塞尔比亚、法国、德国和墨西哥的领导人的支持，但因为没有获得足够多的支持，无法纳入《巴黎协议》。

While attention is shifting to the marketplace, the U.N. process will move ahead. The Paris Agreement's provisions will not kick in until 2020. Indeed, though adopted “by consensus,” no nation has signed it. Countries will be invited to do so in a ceremony at the U.N. headquarters in New York on April 22; the agreement officially will take effect after at least 55 countries, representing at least 55 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, have signed on.

注意力正在转向市场，而联合国的相关进程也将继续。《巴黎协议》的规定到2020年才会开始推行。实际上，虽然协议获得“一致”通过，但尚无国家签署协议。各国将获邀于明年4月22日前往纽约联合国总部参加签订仪式；该协议在至少55个国家――代表至少55%的温室气体排放总量――签署后，才会正式生效。

The United States will be one of them; through careful legal craftsmanship, the Paris Agreement will not be considered as its own treaty under U.S. law but rather as an extension of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which the Senate ratified in 1992.

美国将是签署国之一；经过谨慎的法律制定，《巴黎协议》不会被视作依据美国法律制定的条约，而是《联合国气候变化框架公约》(United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change)的延伸，美国参议院于1992年批准了该公约。

The United Nations has several short-term priorities. One is to get the remaining countries that have not submitted emissions-reduction pledges to do so. Venezuela and St. Kitts and Nevis submitted their plans Saturday, bringing the total to 188.

联合国有几个短期优先计划。一个是让尚未提交减排承诺的国家做出承诺。委内瑞拉、圣基茨和尼维斯联邦于周六提交了计划，使提交计划的国家总数达到188个。

By May, the U.N. climate staff will update its estimate for the combined impact of the national pledges (now known as nationally determined contributions, the qualifying word “intended” having been dropped). Estimates of the first round of pledges suggested that, if carried out, they would still result in a rise of 2.7 to 3.5 degrees Celsius (4.9 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels ― far above the newly adopted aspiration of an increase of just 1.5 degrees Celsius.

在5月底之前，联合国气候官员将会更新对国家承诺（现在被称为国家自主贡献计划，去掉了限定词“预期”）带来的总体影响的预测。有关第一轮承诺的预测显示，如果实施计划，仍旧会导致气温比工业化前水平高2.7至3.5摄氏度，远高于新制定的目标――升高1.5摄氏度。

Climate activists have long used a “power of the people” approach to promote sustainability and organize globally, and the world leaders who met here credited “civil society” for keeping up the pressure.

气候活动人士很早就利用“人民的力量”促进可持续发展，在全球进行组织，前来参加巴黎峰会的世界领导人们将持续加大的压力归功于“公民社会”。

“Now the work to hold them to their promises begins,” U.S. environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben wrote on Twitter, moments after the gavel fell on the Paris Agreement. “1.5? Game on.”

“如今，让它们信守承诺的工作开始了，“美国环保人士、活动人士比尔・麦克奇本(Bill McKibben)在《巴黎协议》敲定后不久在Twitter写道。“1.5度？游戏开始了。”