Obama and Xi ahead of what is likely to be their final meeting before a new president enters the White House in.
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The two countries signed documents committing them to the deal, and then turned those documents over to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, according to the White House.
But the ability of the United States to achieve its Paris targets could be affected by the outcome of a federal court hearing this month, in which 27 U.S. states are trying to block the federal Clean Power Plan that slashes Carbon dioxide from power plants, the largest source of USA greenhouse gas emissions.
Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the Senate should make it clear that the agreement “will have no force or effect until such time as it is ratified by the Senate”.
White House climate adviser Brian Deese said Saturday’s action is meant to “provide confidence to other countries” to join the pact.
The U.N. climate-change pact can not take effect until 55 nations representing 55 percent of worldwide carbon emissions formally ratify the agreement. Still, Trump could opt to simply ignore the agreement and turn his back on the domestic climate plan the Obama administration developed, which sets a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Xi said China had seen the devastating effects of earthquakes first-hand and that he hoped Italy would be able to rebuild. The papers certified the USA and China have taken the necessary steps to join the Paris accord that set nation-by-nation targets for cutting carbon emissions. And the countries that join must account for at least 55 percent of the world’s emissions.
Few other major nations have joined the deal, though more than enough have committed to doing so. France in June voted to ratify the agreement, but the European Union must join it together.
Alden Meyer, worldwide director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Paris agreement’s detailed rules will likely take another year or two to finalize.
Separately, Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi agreed on a side deal aimed at curbing other pollutants in the US and China.
Speaking to a business forum on the eve of a summit of leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies in Hangzhou, Xi said the G20 should combine monetary and fiscal policies with structural reforms to promote growth, and warned that isolationism could not resolve problems faced by the global economy. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, has criticized the deal as “full of empty promises that will have no meaningful impact on the climate”.
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to cancel the agreement. If the deal were to take effect before he took office, he could not change the terms of the plan during his tenure.
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In addition to encouraging Modi to join the Paris deal this year, Obama is expected to press the Indian leader to support a stringent Montreal Protocol amendment, the source said.
