The US and China, who together are responsible for almost 40 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, have formally ratified a historic climate change agreement drawn up in Paris to cut emissions and fight climate change.
Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping delivered documents to the UN Secretary-General, entering their countries into the agreement ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou.
Obama said the U.S. was committed in acting as a global leader in the flight against climate change.
He added:
This is not a fight that any one country no matter how powerful can take alone. Some day we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet. History will judge today’s effort as pivotal.
Director of the United Nations’ environment programme, Erik Solheim, said that this move by China and the U.S. could bring further momentum to the battle against global warming.
Solheim said:
By putting the well-being of our planet at the top of the agenda, the two largest economies in the world are also showing that our economic future is low-carbon and green. The fight against climate change remains difficult and urgent, but having heavy-hitters like China and the US on your side is extremely heartening.
Last December, countries across the world agreed to cut emissions enough to keep the global average rise in temperatures below 2C.
Both China and the US were key players in helping reach an agreement with 195 other nations, where they set a 2030 deadline for emissions to stop rising.
The long-term goal aspires to limit the temperature rise to 1.5C, as temperatures have already risen by almost 1C since the industrial revolution, The Independent reports.
Hopefully this landmark agreement will see humanity beat climate change once and for all.
