China and the United States have both formally ratified the Paris climate change agreement, marking a major step toward the implementation of the global pact.
U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed the decision in China on Sept. 3.
“Just as I believe the Paris agreement will ultimately prove to be a turning point for our planet, I believe that history will judge today’s efforts as pivotal,” he said, as reported by the Guardian.
“Our response to climate change bears on the future of our people and the wellbeing of mankind,” Chinese President Xi Jinping had said earlier, according to the Associated Press.
China and the U.S. are the world’s top two emitters, and together represent 38 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The Paris agreement will come into force if it is ratified by 55 countries that produce at least 55 per cent of global emissions.
Before the announcement from China and the U.S., just 24 countries had ratified the agreement out of the 180 that signed the pact in Paris last December. Together, they represent about one per cent of global emissions.
The decision was expected to put pressure on other countries to ratify the pact. This week, Brazil became the first country since China and the U.S. to formally join the agreement.
If the Paris agreement does come into force, signatories will be required to meet their nationally determined contributions—individual emissions targets set by each country before the deal was signed in December.
For instance, the U.S. has pledged that by 2025, it will have cut emissions by up to 28 per cent compared to 2005 levels.
Countries will also have to try to keep the average global temperature below 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
Canada, which is responsible for 1.95 per cent of global emissions, has yet to formally join the Paris agreement. But Liberal MP Jonathan Wilkinson, parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change, recently told the CBC that Canada will ratify the deal by the end of the year.
“We’re very committed to ratification,” he said on Friday. “We said we’d ratify this year and we’re committed to ratifying this year.”
But Canada’s nationally determined contribution is a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 – a target announced by the Harper government in May 2015. The country is currently not on track to meet that target.
The Trudeau government has yet to establish its own national climate change plan. A meeting in Vancouver between the prime minister and the premiers in March produced few concrete results, other than the creation of working groups to discuss the issue and produce recommendations.
Since then, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has indicated he will impose a national price on carbon. But several premiers – including those of Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and the three territories – are opposed to that idea.
Trudeau is expected to meet with the premiers again in October.
By Maura Forrest, 15 September 2016