Paris climate accord closer after meeting

UNITED NATIONS: The landmark Paris agreement on climate change moved closer to reality Wednesday after 31 countries joined during the United Nations General Assembly.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced confidence that t he accord, through which countries commit to take action to stem the planet’s rising temperatures, would come into force by the end of the year.

“The momentum is remarkable,” said the outgoing UN chief, who convened a meeting on the Paris accord during the annual UN gathering of leaders.

“When the Paris agreement enters into force this year, it will be a major step forward on our journey for a more secure, more equitable and more prosperous future,” Mr Ban said.

The countries that joined the accord on Wednesday included Latin American powerhouses Argentina, Brazil and Mexico as well as major fossil-fuel powers Brunei and the United Arab Emirates.

Also submitting its ratification was Morocco, the host of the next UN climate conference which opens in Marrakesh on Nov 7.

Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said Morocco was “strongly committed” to putting the Paris accord in force in time for the meeting.

The Paris agreement needs ratification from 55 countries that account for at least 55% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

With Wednesday’s event, in which leaders ceremonially ratified the accord, a total of 60 countries have joined the Paris accord but they account for less than 48% of global emissions.

The accord requires all countries to devise plans to achieve the goal of keeping the rise of temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

But Edgar Gutierrez, the environment and energy minister of Costa Rica, said that the level was not ambitious enough in light of evidence of worse-than-feared climate change, with last month the hottest August on record, extending the global record streak to 16 months.

Mr Gutierrez called for countries to aim for 1.5C and warned that even a one-year delay in implementing the Paris accord could be too late for the planet.

“Climate change is already dangerous, 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 Mr Gutierrez, speaking on behalf of a troika of climate-vulnerable nations including Ethiopia and the Philippines.

Mattlan Zackhras, a senior official from the Marshall Islands, warned that despite pledges under the Paris accord the planet still looked on track for a rise of three degrees. “This will wipe out my country and many island-states in the Pacific,” he said.