Paris Agreement ratification ‘truly remarkable’

Commenting on the news that EU ministers have today approved the ratification of the Paris Agreement by the European Union, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said that the speed at which the deal is being approved is ‘truly remarkable’.

“Be in no doubt: the speed at which the Paris Agreement is set to enter into force is truly remarkable. It’s striking not only in the context of global climate talks, which for so many years moved at glacial pace – it’s very unusual for governments to bring any major treaty into force in less than a year,” he said.

“It’s tempting to say that this breakneck speed is the result of signals from the natural world, such as having 16 straight months of record-breaking temperatures and the final refutation of the ‘global warming pause’ narrative. But another equally important factor is in many nations, led by China, a clean energy revolution is taking off driven by economics as well as climate concerns – which makes cutting emissions much easier.

“Currently the pledges governments made at Paris aren’t strong enough to keep global warming well below 2 Celsius, the target that governments adopted. But the Paris deal contains measures to ‘ratchet up’ national commitments, and its astoundingly quick entry into force raises the prospects of tighter emission cuts down the line that could yet steer the world away from dangerous climate change, as the majority of citizens globally want."