The biggest climate news of this week is that both China and the US ratified the Paris agreement. This means that they made it legally binding, and it also sends a strong signal to countries that have yet to ratify it. If you follow this link http://www.paris-agreement.fr you can see which countries that have agreed, and how long we are into the process of having it ratified globally.
A quick summary of what the Paris agreement contains:
- A promise to keep the global warming emissions below 2 degrees celsius, and try to limit it to below 1,5 degrees (a blog post on why this is so will come soon)
- Will contribute with adaptation and loss and damages from the effects of climate change, and secure the financial part of the low emission development
- The agreement will take effect when at least 55 countries - who are contributing to at least 55 % of the global climate emissions - formally has signed the agreement
- So far 177 countries have signed the agreement and 24 countries have ratified it