HANGZHOU, China—China announced on Saturday that it has ratified the emissions-cutting agreement reached last year in Paris, giving a big boost to efforts to bring the accord into effect by the end of this year.
The United States was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the Group of 20 summit that starts Sunday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. Obama landed in Hangzhou Saturday and was scheduled to speak about climate change shortly afterward.
While tensions have risen between Beijing and Washington during Obama’s term over issues including cyber hacking, the South China Sea and the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in China’s neighbor South Korea, combating climate change is one area where both countries have stressed they can work together.
China is the top emitter of man-made carbon dioxide emissions, and the United States is second. Together, they produce 38 percent of the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
Both were key to getting an agreement in Paris last year. To build momentum for a deal, they set a 2030 deadline for emissions to stop rising and announced their “shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.”
China had said in April that it would ratify the Paris Agreement, negotiated by representatives of 195 nations in Paris last year, before its hosting of the G-20 summit. The agreement goes into force when joined by at least 55 nations that produce a total of 55 percent of global emissions.
Before China’s announcement, 23 countries had ratified or otherwise joined the agreement, representing just 1 percent of global emissions, according to the World Resources Institute.
The proposal adopted by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee says the agreement will help China “play a bigger role in global climate governance,” state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
