Syria plans to join Paris Climate Agreement

Syria said on Tuesday that it intends to join the 2015 Paris Agreement for slowing down climate change, isolating the United States as the only country opposed to the agreement.

"We are going to join the Paris Agreement," a Syrian delegate, who was identified as Wadah Katmawi, the deputy minister of the ministry of local administration and environment, speaking in Arabic, said during a plenary session at the 196-nation talks, according to Safa al Jayoussi of the IndyAct NGO, who was monitoring the session. 

"It is our understanding that the government of Syria announced today their intent to join the Paris Agreement," Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the UN climate body, said.

Syria must submit their "instruments of ratification" at the UN headquarters in New York before their adherence becomes official, he added.

The United States ratified the 2015 pact but US President Donald Trump announced earlier this year that he would pull out, stating the pact did not serve US interests.

US mocks Syria

The United States mocked Syria's arrival in the climate change agreement on Tuesday.

The US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert fiercely stated that "If the government of Syria cared so much about what was put in the air, then it wouldn't be gassing its own people," referring to the Syrian regime's brutal civil war tactics.

Nauert further said that the department's under secretary for political affairs, Tom Shannon, would lead a US delegation to the Bonn talks next week but that Trump's decision would stand.

"We intend to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as we're eligible to do so," she said.

US isolation

Openly isolated on the climate issue at G7 and G20 meetings earlier this year, the United States said it intended to withdraw "unless the president can identify terms that are more favourable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers."

The Trump administration has not said what those terms might be.

'With Syria on board, now the entire world is resolutely committed to advancing climate action – all save one country," said Paula Caballero, director for climate change at the World Resources Institute.

"This should make the Trump administration pause and reflect on their ill-advised announcement about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement,"  which was signed in the French capital in December 2015.