China yesterday announced that it has ratified the emissions-cutting agreement reached in Paris last year.
The US was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the G20 summit that starts today in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
US President Barack Obama landed in Hangzhou yesterday and the US also ratified the deal shortly afterward.
While tensions have risen between Beijing and Washington during Obama’s term over issues including cyberhacking, the South China Sea and the planned deployment of a US anti-missile system in South Korea, combating climate change is one area where both countries have said they can work together.
China is the top emitter of carbon dioxide and the US is second. Together, they produce 38 percent of the world’s human-caused carbon dioxide emissions.
Both were key to getting an agreement in Paris last year. To build momentum for a deal, they set a 2030 deadline for emissions to stop rising and announced their “shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.”
China in April said that it would ratify the Paris Agreement, negotiated by representatives of 195 nations in Paris last year, before its hosting of the G20 summit. The agreement goes into force when joined by at least 55 nations that produce a total of 55 percent of global emissions.
Before China’s announcement, 23 countries had ratified or otherwise joined the agreement, representing just 1 percent of global emissions, according to the World Resources Institute.
The proposal adopted by the Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee says the agreement will help China “play a bigger role in global climate governance,” the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
Li Shuo (李碩), senior climate policy adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace, said that the two countries acting on the agreement was “a very important next step.”
If the agreement is eventually adopted, “we’ll have a truly global climate agreement that will bind the two biggest emitters in the world,” Li said.
The agreement’s long-term goal is to keep warming below 2°C compared with pre-industrial times. It has an aspirational goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C. Temperatures are said to have already risen by almost 1°C since the industrial revolution.
According to the Paris Agreement, countries are required to set national targets for reducing or reining in their greenhouse gas emissions. Those targets are not legally binding, but countries must report on their progress and update their targets every five years. The first cycle begins in 2020. Only developed countries are expected to slash their emissions in absolute terms. Developing nations are “encouraged” to do so as their capabilities evolve over time.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS