Today, on behalf of the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry will formally sign the 2015 Paris Agreement — a commitment by over 190 countries to create a global framework to move forward with obligations to transition to sources of clean energy and reduce greenhouses gases worldwide.

Collin O’Mara, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

"The Paris Agreement represents a momentous step toward slowing the climate impacts that are already jeopardizing wildlife and our natural resources. It is crucial that America follow through on commitments to reduce our share of carbon pollution to reach the science-based and globally agreed upon goal of limiting warming to no more than 1.5-2°C. Achieving this goal will require bipartisan collaboration to adopt efficient and effective solutions such as restoring our forests and natural systems that sequester carbon, transitioning to wildlife-friendly clean energy, and pricing carbon appropriately.”

“Last year, the National Wildlife Federation was in Paris and collaborated with other conservation organizations to ensure that the final agreement was sufficiently ambitious to confront the magnitude of the challenge, while encouraging investments in natural resource to reduce emissions, specifically the potential of forests to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere. By preventing future deforestation and forest degradation, while replanting ecologically rich forests that have already been cleared, investing in our forests has the potential to contribute more than one-third of the overall emissions reductions the world needs between now and 2030.”