Paris Climate Deal Picks Up Momentum at U.N. Gathering After 30 more nations ratified global agreement By Valentina Pop
http://www.wsj.com/articles/paris-climate-deal-picks-up-momentum-at-u-n-gathering-1474475782
UNITED NATIONS—A global climate agreement moved closer toward taking effect by the end of the year, as 30 more nations ratified it Wednesday during a special meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
The deal, championed by the Obama administration and struck last year in Paris among 195 countries, sets out a global plan to take steps aimed at limiting climate change. But it can enter into force only once 55 countries representing 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions—the main cause for a steady rise in global temperatures—have ratified it.
As of Wednesday, one of the two conditions—the number of countries—was met, as 60 countries have now ratified it, representing 47.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters—the U.S. and China—ratified the deal earlier this month. A further 13 countries committed to ratify the deal by the end of the year.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the “warriors for the planet” for taking action, noting that the months of July and August were “the hottest months ever recorded on the planet,” and expressed hope that the Paris deal will enter into force before the next U.N. meeting on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November.
If the agreement enters into force this year, the U.S. would be prevented from pulling out for 4 years, potentially binding the hands of the next president—even if he or she was intent on reversing course.
President Barack Obama sought to implement the Paris agreement, one of his legacy projects, before the end of his term.
“I expect the U.S. to remain. The EU would not like a scenario similar to the Kyoto protocol, when there was a withdrawal,” the European Union’s climate chief Miguel Arias Cañete told The Wall Street Journal, in reference to the George Bush administration in 2001 withdrawing from the precursor to the Paris agreement.
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