Syria to join Paris climate accord

Syria said on Tuesday that it intends to join the 2015 Paris accord on slowing climate change.

Syria and Nicaragua, which agreed to join the deal last month, were the only two countries that had not signed up to the deal.

The United States is now the only country that opposes to the pact. It has said it will withdraw from the accord, although former president Barack Obama joined President Xi Jinping last September in ratifying the deal.

The Syrian delegation told the ongoing two-week Bonn climate talks on Tuesday that it is ready to send the ratification of the Paris deal to the UN.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat has not confirmed Syria’s intention yet.

The country could not attend the conference in 2015 because of sanctions imposed on it by the European Union and the US.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said last month that the Paris accord was not ideal but it was the only available international instrument to combat climate change.

The most strategic thing ... is to explore concrete collaboration to deliver a new generation of low-carbon solutions.”

founder of 21st Century Frontiers, a Swedish consultancy

Dennis Pamlin,

Analysts said the announcements from Syria and Nicaragua are encouraging. Already 169 countries out of the 197 have completed their domestic ratification of the Paris Agreement.

Dennis Pamlin, founder of the Swedish consultancy 21st Century Frontiers, said the decision of Syria and Nicaragua was not as important as the overall success of the agreement.

Despite the US government’s growing isolation from the international community, Pamlin said the US is going to work on “concrete and strategic” terms with other powers in extending cooperation.

“Looking at the situation so far they are likely to do the most strategic thing, that is to explore concrete collaboration to deliver a new generation of low-carbon solutions where they include the US,” Pamlin said.

President Donald Trump has said the Paris agreement is bad for the US economy, and that he would like to renegotiate its terms. It is unlikely that the US can formally leave the agreement until 2020.

To mobilize efforts to implement the accord, French President Emmanuel Macron will host a summit in December in Paris.