US and China to sign Paris climate deal

The United States and China have confimred that they will sign the historic Paris Agreement on climate action at an official ceremony in New York on Friday.

The agreement was negotiated at the COP21 climate summit in the French capital in December with nearly 200 UN member states agreeing to cut carbon emissions and prevent dangerous global warming.

The US and China, the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world, issued a joint presidential statement calling on other countries to sign the accord next month “with a view to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as early as possible.”

The Paris Agreement needs at least 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global GHG emissions to formally ratify the deal before it can enter into force.

US climate envoy Todd Stern, who helped negotiate the deal in Paris, said that reaching the ratification threshold as soon as possible is vital for countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Mr Stern said: “The best thing that can happen for them is to get this agreement going and get it into force.”

Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said earlier this month that he expects 120 or more nations to sign the accord at the New York ceremony.

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