Events

MINSK, 21 September (BelTA) – During the high-level ceremony at the UN Headquarters on 21 September Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei delivered Belarus’ instrument of acceptance of the Paris Climate Agreement to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. On September 20 the decree on the acceptance of the Agreement was signed by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Secretary General thanked Belarus for the leadership and active participation in the international process to combat climate change.

On 22 April 2016, the day the Agreement was opened for signature, the Head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry signed the Agreement on Belarus’ behalf.

According to the press service of the ministry, Paris Agreement was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in December 2015. It seeks to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees and to strive for 1.5 degrees limit. National commitments to reduce emissions to the atmosphere in combination with international cooperation mechanisms will set the basis to achieve this goal.

During the ceremony instruments of acceptance, ratification or approval were deposited by 31 states. To date, 60 countries have expressed their consent for implementation of the Paris Agreement. For its entry into force the consent of 55 countries accounting for at least 55 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions is needed. This indicator currently approximates to 48%, primarily due to the ratification by China and the United States. It is expected that the agreement will enter into force prior to the next session of the parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change in Morocco in November-December 2016.

Belarus has become one of the first European countries that have expressed consent to the Paris Agreement, alongside with Albania, Iceland, Norway, and Ukraine.

Belarus’ participation in the international climate cooperation is considered in the context of the implementation of the national social and economic development program and achievement of global sustainable development goals approved by world leaders at the 2015 UN summit.