Despite Slow Start, Paris Climate Accord Is 'Alive and Kicking' On 5th Birthday Five years into the landmark agreement, governments and companies are pledging to cut emissions. By Megan Rowling BARCELONA, Dec 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — As the gavel went down on Dec. 12, 2015, signalling the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, 5,000 people in the room jumped to their feet crying, embracing, clapping, and stomping, then UN climate chief Christiana Figueres remembers. "I have never heard as much ruckus as there, from people who usually protect their public decorum," she ...