Syria will at long last sign the Paris climate agreement, leaving the United States as the only country in the entire world that does not want to be party to the accord.
Syria just agreed to sign the Paris climate agreement, making the US the only holdout
Delegates from Syria made the announcement at climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
Umair Irfan was a correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, energy policy, and science. He is a regular contributor to the radio program Science Friday. Prior to Vox, he was a reporter for ClimateWire at E&E News.
The Syrian delegate made the announcement Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit in Bonn, Germany, where talks are underway to get countries to implement their plans under the agreement faster and more aggressively.
Forged in 2015, the Paris agreement is a broad, voluntary framework designed to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the end of century. The aim is to help countries hold each other accountable in reducing emissions; it also asks richer countries to help out poorer countries that will suffer the worst impacts of climate change.
Before Syria, the only other holdout was Nicaragua, a country that didn’t sign because it thought the agreement didn’t go far enough. The Latin American nation joined the agreement in October.
Syria, meanwhile, has been enmeshed in a devastating civil war that’s killed more than 475,000 and displaced 14 million. Its government was also under sanctions, making it difficult for representatives to travel to international climate meetings. While it offered no explanation for its decision to join, it nonetheless sent to a pointed message to the US: You are all alone in your recalcitrance on climate change.
In June, President Donald Trump announced that the US would begin the process to withdraw from the agreement, claiming that it imposes “draconian financial and economic burdens ... on our country” and should be “renegotiated.” (The first claim is utterly false, and the agreement cannot be renegotiated, as Vox’s David Roberts has explained.)
In October, when asked about Nicaragua’s decision to sign, a White House spokesperson affirmed that the Trump administration intends to pull out. “As the president previously stated, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms the are more favorable for our country,” the statement said. (The White House on Tuesday said it had no additional statement on Syria and referred reporters to this one.)
It will take several years to formally withdraw. But come 2020, if the process is completed, the United States would have the bitter distinction of being the only country on this Quartz map not in it:
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