The Paris climate agreement was adopted by nearly 200 countries in an historic vote last December.
But the deal itself is riddled with UN-speak.
What does it all mean?
Broadly, the agreement seeks to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
More specifically, it aims to keep temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees and to “pursue efforts” to stay below 1.5 degrees.
Unlike previous climate treaties, the Paris agreement is a little more open-ended about how to achieve the under-2-degree goal.
Instead of setting limits for countries, it lets each come up with their own plan to reduce carbon emissions and use more renewable energy.
That strategy has been a target of criticism by people who say it’s too lax.
Under the plans already submitted by nearly 200 countries, scientists say the average global temperature rise will outstrip the agreed limit.
But this didn’t escape the negotiators’ attention.
The agreement lays out a system whereby countries submit updated plans - incorporating the best technology as it becomes available - to improve upon their previous plans at five-year intervals.
They also commit individually to reaching an emissions peak as soon as possible, ultimately leading to a global “balance” between output and absorption by between 2050 and 2100.
Absorption is achieved through so-called “carbon sinks,” which are natural or artificial reservoirs such as forests or oceans.
Forests can be carbon sinks because they use carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis, which is why tree-planting programmes are a popular way of offsetting emissions.
Much of the other technology, called carbon capture and sequestration (CCS for short), is only in its preliminary stages and has yet to be proven in a large-scale.
Countries are responsible for accounting for their carbon emissions themselves, with the UN summit taking its first global look at progress in 2023.
It will do the same every five years thereafter.
With a handful of developed countries largely responsible for historic carbon emissions, the agreement makes development-based distinctions - with industrialised countries committing to seeing peak emissions sooner and extending technology transfer and damage control assistance to vulnerable places like island states.
Additionally, developing countries have said that, in some cases, their ability to curb emissions by switching to renewable energy sources will require outside financial support.
Often when such countries are trying to deal with other pressing issues - like fighting poverty and hunger - they simply can’t afford to spend more money on renewable energy.
Recognising this, and the need to pour investment into renewable energy technology in order to bring down its price, developed countries also agreed in 2015 to a goal of making available $100bn per year by 2020 to help developing countries.
That decision, however, is not in the legal agreement but a section preceding it.
Related Story