A plan by the world's nations to limit climate change is much closer to coming into force after India ratified the agreement struck in Paris last year.
Among those applauding the latest development are Indian scientists who work with wild Asian elephants.
They say the effects of climate change will lead to more conflict between humans and elephants.
SBS went on safari looking for wild elephants near the city of Tumkur in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
When you are looking for endangered animals in the wild, there is a lot of waiting, a lot of looking at trees and a lot of squinting through binoculars.
And then, if you are lucky, one of the most majestic sights nature has to offer trundles into view: the Asian elephant.
In this crowded country of 1.3 billion people, there are between 25,000 and 30,000 wild elephants roaming about.
Nishant Srinivasaiah is a doctoral student who has spent nine years researching Asian elephants.
"They're extremely intelligent beings. They have learnt over a period of time how to overcome the barriers we have put up for them. It's very challenging to work with elephants, because they are challenging you at all points in time."
Many Asian elephants already live in what scientists call fragmented landscapes.
The animals SBS saw had moved from a national park close to a local village in the hope of finding more nutritious food.
Scientists say climate change will make the situation worse when elephants have to deal with more extreme weather events like droughts.
Professor Raman Sukumar, from the Indian Institute of Science, is one of the world's leading experts on Asian elephants.
"The way that elephants will behave will be that elephants will now move out of their natural habitat into agricultural areas, into areas of human settlement, where they will come into conflict with people."
The Asian elephant has been classified as endangered for 30 years.
In South-East Asia, the numbers are declining, although, in India, where more than half the world's wild Asian elephants live, the numbers have stabilised.
But scientists say, with climate change, animals and humans will be threatened as hungry elephants come looking for crops.
In 1983, during one of India's worst droughts, 50 wild elephants left the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and marched north into Andhra Pradesh.
That Indian state had not seen the animals in 400 years.
Professor Sukumar says he witnessed the migration.
"And there was a sharp escalation in conflict between elephants and people. Elephants trampled agriculture, crops. Dozens of people were killed, because people were not used to seeing wild elephants."
Professor Sukumar has welcomed India's move to ratify the global deal on climate change agreed to in Paris last year.
India foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told the United Nations October the 2nd was a significant day for India to ratify the treaty.
"This has been well thought out. It is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who epitomised a lifestyle with the smallest carbon footprint."
But even the most ambitious agreement is not going to stop extreme weather events and their impact on the Asian elephant.
Indian experts say the focus must be on managing the conflict that is coming regardless.
