The government of Syria announced on Tuesday that it will sign the Paris climate accord, leaving the United States alone in opposing the agreement.
During the opening plenary of the COP23 climate change summit in Bonn, Germany, Syria announced it would ratify the 2015 deal.
President Donald Trump announced in June that he would pull the U.S. out of the agreement, claiming the deal is “unfair” to the U.S. and American businesses.
In December 2015, 195 world leaders reached the consensus deal, agreeing to hold the increase in global temperatures this century to below 2 degrees Celsius above industrial levels, and push for efforts to halt it at 1.5 degrees Celsius. They also agreed to fund efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists agree contribute to increases in global temperatures.
Syria’s move means only the U.S. is outside the deal. Nicaragua had also previously also declined to back the agreement, saying it did not go far enough, but Vice President Rosario Murillo announced
last month that the country would sign on.
The annual conference of the parties under the framework of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place in Bonn from November 6-17. Some 10,000 government delegates are expected to attend the meeting.
