The landmark Paris agreement on climate change moved closer to reality Wednesday after 31 countries joined during the United Nations General Assembly.
Advertisement
“Brazilian President, Michel Temer affirmed his country’s commitment to fighting global warming, ‘Tomorrow I will deposit Brazil’s instruments of ratification of the Paris Agreement”. Trump has dismissed manmade climate change as a hoax invented by the Chinese and says he will abandon the Paris agreement if elected.
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Greg Clark said: “The Government is determined to tackle climate change to help create a safer and more prosperous future for us all”.
For the Paris Agreement, secured in the French capital last December, to come into force, it must be ratified by at least 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of the world’s emissions.
The United States officially joined the Paris agreement, along with China, during the G20 Summit earlier this month.
Friends of the Earth have stated that the announcement by Prime Minister, Theresa May, that the United Kingdom will ratify the Paris climate deal by Christmas is an important step.
With more countries pledging to join the agreement before the end of the year, it is expected it could come into force in 2016.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to address the situation in the Middle East during the General Assembly for the 71st session of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in NY, U.S., September 21, 2016. The agreement becomes official when at least 55 countries comprising at least 55 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions sign on.
USA diplomats are also pushing other countries to accelerate their ratification efforts so that the deal can enter into force this year.
She said: “By ensuring a managed and controlled global migration response – and at the same time investing to tackle the underlying drivers of displacement and migration at source – we can reject isolationism and xenophobia, achieving better outcomes for all of our citizens – and particularly for the most vulnerable”.
“Climate change is already unsafe, it has already exceeded the capacity of many countries to adapt to it, we have already lost lives, we are losing species and we have lost lands and buildings”, said Gutierrez, speaking on behalf of a troika of climate-vulnerable nations including Ethiopia and the Philippines.
Currently, there are 185 signatories to the Paris Agreement.
Countries have agreed that there will be no back-tracking in these national climate plans, meaning that the level of ambition to reduce emissions will increase over time.
He said European Union environment ministers will meet Friday to discuss a plan to ratify the agreement as a bloc, even though only a handful of the 28 member states have approved it domestically.
The European Union, which accounts for 12 percent of global emissions, is lagging behind other countries in joining the deal but is trying to speed things up.
Advertisement
A senior United Kingdom source said Mrs May’s address, her first major speech on foreign policy, showed her view that “the more we do earlier on overseas, the better we can protect people at home”. “My country, along with other small island nations, is on the front line of climate impacts”.
