Politics
09:59, 08-Nov-2017
Syria set to sign up to Paris climate deal, US isolated
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The Bonn climate change conference produced unexpected news on Tuesday: Syria plans to sign up to the Paris climate deal.
"It is our understanding that the government of Syria announced today their intent to join the Paris Agreement," Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the UN climate body, told AFP.
The move would leave the US as the only country seeking to be outside the “common cause” deal to curb global warming. The Trump administration intends to formally leave the Paris Climate Accord by the year 2020.
To draw attention to the acute threat of rising sea levels, this year's 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 23) is presided over by the Pacific island nation of Fiji while technically being hosted by Germany.
The key objective of the two-week conference is to formulate uniform standards for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions with a view to the objectives agreed to in Paris.
Syria was unable to participate in the 2015 conference which first witnessed the entry of states into the Paris climate accord due to its simultaneously raging civil war and UN sanctions against the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Nicaragua was the only other country initially outside the deal, but it signed up in October 2017.
France is organizing another multilateral climate summit in Paris which will take place on the second anniversary of the original conference, December 12. A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said that US President Donald Trump was "not invited so far."
Source(s): Reuters