巴黎協議 一個終結化石燃料的承諾
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——上週六晚間，各國在巴黎郊外的會議中心一致通過《巴黎協議》(Paris Agreement)。就在會議中心裏的熱烈掌聲仍然響徹耳際之時，世界領導人已經發出警告，絕不允許這個具有歷史意義的協議的動力有所消退。
“Today, we celebrate,” said Miguel Arias the European Union's energy commissioner and top climate negotiator. “Tomorrow, we have to act.”
“今天，我們歡呼慶祝，”歐盟能源委員、首席氣候談判代表米格爾·阿里亞斯·卡涅特(Miguel Arias Canete)說。“明天，我們就必須行動起來。”
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.
現在，幾乎地球上每個國家現在都承諾逐漸減少導致全球變暖的溫室氣體的排放。這是自1992年首屆地球日峯會在里約熱內盧召開以來，談判代表及活動人士首次獲得這種普遍承諾。保持動力的大部分重擔目前已轉回到各個國家，它們需要制定並落實兌現承諾所需的具體步驟。
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.
這項任務可能對於印度來說尤爲艱難，該國正在努力幫助超過一半的人口擺脫貧困，併爲其中3億人提供基本電力。印度的總人口爲12.5億。富裕國家則一心希望，印度不要陷入依賴煤炭的發展道路。
“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.
活動人士組織德國觀察(Germanwatch)的揚·伯克(Jan Burck)表示，“重要的是，發展中國家在達到像發達國家一樣的對煤炭的依賴水平之前，能夠改變能源系統。”
During negotiations, India insisted that it would not be able to make the transition without assistance.
在談判期間，印度堅稱該國無法在沒有援助的情況下完成轉變。
“There will have to be new mechanisms,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters after the agreement was adopted.
印度環境部長普拉卡什·雅瓦德卡爾(Prakash Javadekar)在該協議獲得通過後對記者表示，“必須要有新機制。”
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.
與此同時，中國正在大力投資清潔能源。其巨大力度讓一些觀察人士認爲，中國的碳排放量可能已經達到峯值。中國曾承諾在2030年前達到這一里程碑。
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.
中國代表團團長解振華在週六表示，“中國將積極實施國家自主貢獻計劃，以儘快達到峯值，”但該國官員們私下表示，中國已經擺脫在2009年丹麥哥本哈根氣候談判期間被煤炭玷污的名聲，他們爲此感到驕傲。
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.”
最不發達國家組織(Least Developed Countries)作爲一個陣營在巴黎參加談判，其代表、安哥拉外交官吉扎·加斯帕·馬丁斯(Giza Gaspar Martins)提到該協議時說，“這只是漫漫長路中的一站。它提供了一個採取氣候行動的系統，但我們還有很多工作要做。”
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，這些承諾旨在強調參與而不是目標，但現在“我們需要確保各國的自主貢獻計劃與科學家們認定的需要採取的舉措保持一致”。
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.
與會的領導人們同意以下觀點，即雖然需要通過法律法規爲市場設定基本規則，但完成利用可再生能源替代化石燃料的最終目標則將需要加快研究、投資及技術突破的步伐。
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.
就像智利生化工程師、氣候談判代表馬塞洛·梅納·卡拉斯科(Marcelo Mena Carrasco)說的那樣，通過要求——雖然是以間接、小心準備的措辭提出——“在本世紀下半葉”實現溫室氣體淨零排放，《巴黎協議》可以算是標誌着“終結化石燃料時代的起點”。
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.
這肯定是奧巴馬政府希望看到的。美國國務卿約翰·克里(John Kerry)表示，美國政府曾通過收緊汽車及輕型卡車的燃油效率標準，控制燃煤發電站的排放量，與中國達成一致，在一定程度上推動了協議的達成。中國是唯一一個比美國排放更多溫室氣體的國家。
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.
貝拉克·奧巴馬總統支持給碳定價的計劃，其方式是通過徵稅或模仿加州設立排放限額與交易系統。該計劃在巴黎峯會開始時獲得了加拿大、智利、埃塞爾比亞、法國、德國和墨西哥的領導人的支持，但因爲沒有獲得足夠多的支持，無法納入《巴黎協議》。
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.
注意力正在轉向市場，而聯合國的相關進程也將繼續。《巴黎協議》的規定到2020年纔會開始推行。實際上，雖然協議獲得“一致”通過，但尚無國家簽署協議。各國將獲邀於明年4月22日前往紐約聯合國總部參加簽訂儀式；該協議在至少55個國家——代表至少55%的溫室氣體排放總量——簽署後，纔會正式生效。
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.
美國將是簽署國之一；經過謹慎的法律制定，《巴黎協議》不會被視作依據美國法律制定的條約，而是《聯合國氣候變化框架公約》(United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change)的延伸，美國參議院於1992年批准了該公約。
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.
聯合國有幾個短期優先計劃。一個是讓尚未提交減排承諾的國家做出承諾。委內瑞拉、聖基茨和尼維斯聯邦於週六提交了計劃，使提交計劃的國家總數達到188個。
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，聯合國氣候官員將會更新對國家承諾（現在被稱爲國家自主貢獻計劃，去掉了限定詞“預期”）帶來的總體影響的預測。有關第一輪承諾的預測顯示，如果實施計劃，仍舊會導致氣溫比工業化前水平高2.7至3.5攝氏度，遠高於新制定的目標——升高1.5攝氏度。
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.
氣候活動人士很早就利用“人民的力量”促進可持續發展，在全球進行組織，前來參加巴黎峯會的世界領導人們將持續加大的壓力歸功於“公民社會”。
“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，讓它們信守承諾的工作開始了，“美國環保人士、活動人士比爾·麥克奇本(Bill McKibben)在《巴黎協議》敲定後不久在Twitter寫道。“1.5度？遊戲開始了。”
