Paris climate deal draws closer after UN event

NEW YORK

The Paris Climate Agreement on Wednesday fell just short of entering into force after 31 countries joined the agreement at a UN event in New York.

The countries “depositing their instruments of ratification” of the agreement at an event on the margins of the UN General Assembly meeting include Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates, besides several others.

According to the agreement, in order to get into force at least 55 countries should ratify it and these countries should be representing the 55 percent of global emissions.

After Wednesday’s event, according to a UN statement, 60 countries representing 48 percent of the global emission have so far joined.

“This momentum is remarkable,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the event. “It can sometimes take years or even decades for a treaty to enter into force. It is just nine months since the Paris climate conference. This is testament to the urgency of the crisis we all face.”

The agreement signed by 195 countries last December in Paris, calls on countries “to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future, and to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change”.

China and the U.S., the two largest emitters, joined the agreement in early September.

“The Paris Agreement was an extraordinary milestone. It was one that, for so many of you here, took decades to achieve,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the meeting.

Kerry characterized the meeting as a “celebration” as the world approved “most ambitious, inclusive climate agreement in history” but he called on world leaders to bring the agreement into force.

More signatories, including major economies such as the European Union and Australia, pledged to ratify the agreement this year. The EU will be voting this October.

The U.K., who voted to exit the EU in June, also promised to ratify in 2016.