The historic agreement on climate change, the Paris climate agreement has been inked with  delegates at UN headquarters in New York.

The agreement has been signed by a record 175 countries, including India. The new international treaty marked a major  milestone in fight of a relentless rise in global temperatures.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his opening speech, that, "Paris will shape the lives of all future generations in a profound way it is their future that is at stake."

“The world is in a race against time. The era of consumption without consequences is over.” “Today you are signing a new covenant with the future. This covenant must amount to more than promises,” he said.

UN climate chief, Christiana, said that, "Most countries, though not all, need to take the signed document and go back home and go to ratification procedures that in most countries requires parliamentary discussion and decision."  

Hollywood actor and climate change campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio said that, "After 21 years of debates and conferences it's time to declare no more talks, no more 10-year studies, no more allowing the fossil fuel companies to manipulate and dictate the science and the policies that affect our future. This is the body that can do what is needed."

"That exercise is going to take too long, we should all join together and tell our friends in the EU they must move along more quickly than that," said the Marshall Islands Ambassador for climate change, Tony De Brum.

"We did not expect that kind of distance in the process of ratification and approval."

BBC news reported that, India's environment minister Prakash Javadekar, said that, "We don't know who the next President will be and what stand the new administration will take."

"What happens in the US will have a definite bearing on how the world takes all these ideas and commitments and pledges in effect. So people are eagerly awaiting what happens in the US."

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Nandini