required to do in order tore people to live decent lives. these two rival parliaments, one the islamist party, which is the general national congress, and the other one the council of representatives is considered more liberal. one is into having this agreement and saying they have to form a unity government to govern this country, there s only 6 million people in this oil-rich country. they should be doing very, very, very well. but its citizens have been suffering for a very, very long time. not only when moammar gadhafi was in place but since the country has crumbled and it s become a lawless state. people need things like electricity and water and some of these areas are being infiltrated by isis as well. so it is a state that needs true strong government for the people, by the people.
together. now, no agreement is perfect, including this one. negotiations that involved nearly 200 nations are always challenging. even if all the initial targets set in paris are met, we ll only be part of the way there when it comes to reducing carbon from the atmosphere. so we cannot be complacent because of today s agreement. the problem is not solved because of this accord. john sutter was at that conference and now joins us live from paris. john, good to have you with us. so we were together yesterday to witness that moment where this accord was ratified, a moment of consensus. but now, these world leaders have to take the deal back to their respective countries and try to sell it. reporter: yeah. essentially for the deal to go into effect, you need 55 countries and about 55% of the global emissions. you need to have those countries
john, thank you for your reporting there. this has been described as a sweeping agreement. for an environmental law professor that we spoke to earlier, this is very sobering. here s what patrick parenteau had to say. this is more of a political agreement than legal document, frankly. it s important, certainly for the nations to commit to what they ve committed to and to commit to ratcheting up the pledges that have been made. but the time frame is very short. the amount of carbon that we re putting into the atmosphere every year on order of 36 billion tons is still going into the atmosphere. it will be there for centuries. the science is telling us that the climate systems of the earth are actually more sensitive than we thought. the rate of melting of the ice sheets, the warm fgt oceans, the sea level rise.
global problem, it requires all the countries to work together to see what s in their self-interest and to hopefully find some financing, some new industries out of that. also to do it on behalf of the rest of the world. john, correct to say it will take 55 countries to sign on to this and mainly those larger countries for this deal to actually take effect, correct? reporter: yeah, that is correct. 55 countries and totaling 55% of global emission. i don t see that happening. i see that more of a formality. things could change. where it sits now, the moment in paris where you saw him gaveling this agreement through with no objections from 196 countries, that s hugely significant. that was a turning point in the moment. cnn s john sutter live for us at our paris bureau.