The European Union intends to enter the agreements as a whole, as it represents 12 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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That would make it more hard for Republican Donald TrumpDonald TrumpClinton camp: Trump hasn’t “actually changed his mind” on birtherism Complaint filed against Trump Foundation with Florida AG In shift, Trump is critical of police officer MORE to completely unravel the pact if he becomes president.
On Wednesday, 31 countries including Argentina, Singapore, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico officially joined the Paris Agreement, an accord committing nations to staving off global warming at no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
The binding global deal would slash greenhouse gases, keeping global temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. What would be the reaction in the US, where today most USA citizens believe climate change is real and something has to be done about it?
Previous agreements had placed larger burdens on industrialized nations compared to developing countries, leading to a diplomatic stalemate.
On Wednesday, 31 countries formally signed up to the Paris deal at the United Nations general assembly in NY. To date, 60 countries that account for nearly 48 percent of the world’s emissions have formally joined the Paris Agreement.
At the start of on Wednesday’s meeting, the Secretary-General also praised the 29 countries – accounting for 40 per cent of global emissions – that had previously formally joined the Agreement since the signing ceremony, congratulating them for their continued efforts to push forward the pact’s entry into force.
A number of key economies, including the EU, New Zealand, and South Korea, today pledged that they intend to ratify the agreement in the coming weeks.
The warmest August on record was recorded last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed on Tuesday.
This means that one of those two thresholds has now been exceeded, years earlier than expected.
“The fact that the Paris agreement will likely enter into force this year took everyone by surprise”.
If on the other hand a President Trump entered the Oval Office before the accord entered into force, he would not be tied to that requirement and could withdraw the US immediately if he chose to do so.
“What once seemed impossible now seems inevitable”.
The Republican nominee’s claim generated an outburst from the American scientific community, where 375 scientists belonging to the National Academy of Sciences signed a letter addressed to Donald Trump, suggesting that “such a decision would make it far more hard to develop effective global strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change”.
“The UK played a major role when the world came together previous year and we will continue to play our part in the transition to a global low-carbon economy as we continue to provide secure, affordable and clean energy at home”. This rapid pace reflects a spirit of cooperation rarely seen on a global scale.
Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the European Commission’s spokesperson for Energy and Climate Actions told The Hindu in a written response that Brexit is unlikely to impact the prospects of the Paris treaty and the EU is aiming for early ratification by the end of the year, although member countries will have to individually pursue their ratification processes back at home. I urge other countries to do all they can under their laws to ratify the agreement in 2016 and help bring it into effect.
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Australia, one of the largest per capita emitters, will make its “best endeavours to ratify” in 2016, said the country’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
