離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 China, US vow adoption as 175 states ink Paris Agreement on climate change
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds his two-year-old granddaughter Isabelle Dobbs-Higginson as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change at United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., on Friday. Photo: Reuters
CATCH 28: One article of the deal stipulates that any nation that wants to withdraw must wait four years, a bid to lock in the US should a Republican win election
/ Reuters, UNITED NATIONS
China and the US, the world’s top producers of greenhouse gas emissions, on Friday pledged to formally adopt by the end of the year a Paris deal to slow global warming, raising the prospects of it being enforced much faster than anticipated.
The UN said 175 states took the first step of signing the deal on Friday, the biggest day-one endorsement of a global agreement. Of those, 15 states also formally notified the UN that they had ratified the deal.
Many countries still need a parliamentary vote to formally approve the agreement, which was reached in December last year. The deal will enter into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions of human origin.
China and the US together account for 38 percent of global emissions.
“China will finalize domestic legal procedures on its accession before the G20 Hangzhou summit in September this year,” Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli （張高麗） told the UN signing ceremony, attended by 55 heads of state and government.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who signed the deal with his two-year-old granddaughter Isabelle on his lap, said the US “looks forward to formally joining this agreement this year.”
US President Barack Obama is to formally adopt the agreement through executive authority.
The deal commits countries to restraining the global rise in temperatures to “well below” 2oC above pre-industrial levels. However, even if the pact is fully implemented, promised greenhouse gas cuts are insufficient to limit warming to an agreed maximum, the UN said.
The first three months of this year have broken temperature records and last year was the planet’s warmest year since records began in the 19th century, with heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels.
“The era of consumption without consequences is over,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. “We must intensify efforts to decarbonize our economies and we must support developing countries in making this transition.”
Many developing nations are pushing to ensure the climate deal comes into force this year, partly to lock in the US if a Republican opponent of the pact is elected in November to succeed Obama, a Democrat.
Once the accord enters into force, a little-noted Article 28 of the agreement stipulates that any nation wanting to withdraw must wait four years, the length of a US presidential term.
The deal also requires rich nations to maintain a US$100 billion per year funding pledge beyond 2020, providing greater financial security to developing nations to build their defenses to extreme weather and wean themselves away from coal-fired power.
“We need to mobilize the necessary financial resources,” French President Francois Hollande said. “We need to ensure that our words become actions.”
The UN’s previous climate deal, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, entered into force only in 2005. Kyoto dictated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions only for developed nations, unlike the Paris Agreement, which involves both rich and poor, but lets all countries set national targets.
The previous first-day record for signatures for a global agreement was set in 1982 when 119 states signed the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“More countries have come together here to sign this agreement today than for any other cause in the history of humankind and that is a reason for hope,” actor and UN Messenger of Peace on climate change Leonardo DiCaprio told the event, which took place on Earth Day.
“Unfortunately, the evidence shows us that it will not be enough. Our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong,” he said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
