Explanation :

• The Paris Agreement (COP21) is a landmark environmental accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts.
• The Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• The Agreement opened for signature on 22 April 2016 – Earth Day, at UN Headquarters in New York. It entered into force on 4 November 2016.

Significance

• It provides a pathway for developed nations to assist developing nations in their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and it creates a framework for the transparent monitoring, reporting, and ratcheting up of countries’ individual and collective climate goals.