Nigeria ratifies Paris Agreement on climate change
President Mahammadu Buhari on Tuesday March 28, 2017, on behalf of Nigeria, signed the Instrument of Ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at the State House in Abuja.
More than 190 nations adopted the Paris Agreement in December 2015 during the historic twenty-first Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) held in Paris, France.
The President had on September 22, 2016 signed the Paris Agreement at a high-level meeting convened by the immediate past United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in New York.
As at Tuesday March 28, 2017, 197 countries have signed the agreement while 141 countries have ratified it.
The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework. Further information on key aspects of the Agreement can be found here.
The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, thirty days after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 % of the total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Depositary.
