A total of 175 world leaders were present at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday, April 22 for the official signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, as nations vow to stop and prevent the further effects of global warming.

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This has been considered as a milestone in global efforts to reduce the production of man made greenhouse gases, which will receive complete support from countries that contribute to 93 percent of these emissions. This also marks the first international agreement to receive the most number of signatures from nations on its first day.

According to United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, this marks the hard work accomplished by so many in order to win the battle in securing the Paris Agreement, and now knowing what we know, it is also time to recommit ourselves to win this war.

The Paris climate accord already received ratification from 14 countries that are made up of smaller island nations however, the approval of a total of at least 55 nations is required for this to be in effect. For example, the Kyoto Protocol was criticized and attacked during the 1990s due to internal procedures and and politics that differ for each country in the ratification of the agreement.

However, this time around, advocates of the climate change agreement are confident that this ratification process would be more fruitful compared to the last ones. The Paris agreement is designed in such a way that nations' approval will not be met with political discord within their nation's policies. 

Some nations criticized the agreement as possessing binding aspects to it such as reporting emissions and specific efforts that will be carried out. Ultimately, the main goal of the Paris agreement is to prevent global temperatures in exceeding more than 2 degrees Celsius before 2100. 

Planners and drafters of the accord have chosen to ratify the agreement in the U.S. to ensure that they would not be met with a rebuttal from the Senate, which can potentially delay its enactment that can reach up to years.  

Kerry vows that the Paris Climate Change Agreement will be approved by the end of the year. On the other hand, China also supports this agreement, stating that the agreement will be ratified even before the G-20 conference later this year.

This has been a crucial sign indicating a potential success of the Paris accord since China and the U.S. produce the most greenhouse gas emissions on the planet, making up 40 percent of total man made carbon.