Environmentalists in Zambia on Tuesday welcomed the decision by world leaders to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, which has been lauded as a milestone in efforts aimed at tackling climate change.

Last Friday, world leaders from 175 countries inked the agreement. With the planet heating up to record levels, sea levels rising and glaciers melting, the pressure to have the Paris agreement enter into force and to have every country turn words into action became a reality at the United Nations (UN) signing ceremony last Friday.

"We are happy that the process of dealing with climate change in the world is so far moving smoothly and now we have reached a stage of having this binding document agreed upon by countries," Morgan Katati, chief executive officer of the Zambia Institute of Environmental Management told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

He said it was gratifying that the world as reached at a stage where a legally binding document was on sight and that this brings a sigh of relief to efforts aimed at tackling green gas emission.

Abel Musumali, executive director of Green Environment also welcomed the signing of the agreement, describing it as a landmark decision towards fighting climate change in the world.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said at the UN headquarters in New York during the signing ceremony that last December in Paris, the international community adopted the world's first universal climate agreement and pledged to curb emissions and to strengthen resilience to potentially devastating climate impacts.

He said the signing of the agreement was historical as it represents the largest number of countries ever to sign an international agreement on a single day.

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the pact will enter into force and become legally binding 30 days after at least 55 countries representing more than 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions have joined it through ratification, acceptance or approval. Both conditions must be met for the agreement to become legally binding.

The agreement will remain open for signature until April 17, 2017.