Syria officially joins Paris Agreement, leaving US in the cold

Syria officially signs up to the Paris Agreement, leaving the United States as the only country to reject the global climate-rescue pact.

“The Syrian Arab Republic deposited its instrument of accession of the Paris Agreement on 13 November 2017,” says the UN climate secretariat (UNFCCC) hosting the annual round of global climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany.

After Nicaragua signed up in October, Syria was the only country not to have adopted the pact. Another 27 nations that have signed the treaty have yet to pass domestic laws required for full accession.

The United States, which championed the agreement under Barack Obama, adopted it in the French capital in December 2015, signed it at the UN in April 2016, and ratified in September last year. But in June this year Donald Trump announced that America would pull out of the agreement, which he said imposed “draconian financial and economic burdens” on the United States.

— AFP