Climate pact gains traction
UN hopes Paris accord can be enforced by end of the year
AT LEAST 20 countries say they will join the 27 that have endorsed the Paris climate change agreement, raising hopes that the deal will come into force by the end of the year.
Countries are to attend a one-hour UN event on Wednesday and secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has invited them to deposit their instruments of ratification or approval of the Paris deal when they meet.
Selwin Hart, director of the UN chief ’s climate change support team, said leaders whose countries were not yet ready to join, but which planned to do so this year had been invited to contribute videos expressing their commitment.
David Nabarro, Ban Kimoon’s special adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, said: “When we start to look at the countries that are joining the agreement and the countries that are going to commit to join before the end of the year, we are absolutely certain we will have the Paris agreement on climate change entering into force by the end of 2016.”
To come into effect, the agreement needs to be ratified by at least 55 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and which together represent at least 55 percent of global emissions.
The officials told journalists in New York on Thursday that the UN had received 27 ratifications accounting for 39 percent of global emissions.
They included the world’s two biggest emitters of green- house gases, the US and China.
Among those expected to join this week are Brazil, which accounts for 10 to 12 percent of global carbon pollution, and Mexico.
Experts with the World Resources Institute say if all the nations that have said publicly they will join the agreement this year do so, it could come into force by December 31.
It is unclear whether it could take effect before the annual UN climate conference, to be held in November in Morocco. For this to happen, the thresholds would have to be reached by October 7, as the deal would come into force only 30 days later.
If this does not happen in time for the Marrakesh meeting, the first talks on implementing the Paris deal will take place next year.
The officials said it was “remarkable” the agreement could come into force so soon after having been adopted in December. This was a process that could often take years or decades.
All eyes are now on the EU, which has indicated it is looking for a way to speed up its Paris ratification – a complex process involving its 28 member states.
Hart said there was even a possibility the EU could join this year – but it was a “work in progress”.
The UN is also to focus on two summits strengthening the world’s response to the rising numbers of refugees and migrants. A draft document acknowledges that the “adverse effects” of climate change and natural disasters are among the factors causing people to leave their homes.