Oct. 7 (UPI) — Turkey has become the latest country and the final G20 nation to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement.
The nation’s ministry of foreign affairs announced Wednesday that parliament unanimously agreed to ratify the agreement more than five years after Ankara signed it on April 22, 2016.
“I wish that this step, which adds great strength to our fight against climate change and forms the basis of our 2053 Net Zero vision, will be beneficial,” said Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum via Twitter.
Turkey’s ratification leaves Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen as the only remaining nations that have yet to ratify the agreement, which is legally binding and was adopted by nearly 200 countries in late 2015 with the goal to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
According to a declaration that accompanied the text Turkey’s parliament agreed to Wednesday, Ankara will implement the landmark climate agreement as “a developing country” despite the U.N. Convention listing it as an Annex I developed nation, which changes its responsibilities under the accord.
The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change states that Annex I developed countries have the greatest onus to cut green house gases while developing countries have to report their progress on cutting emissions less regularly while their “reporting is contingent on their getting funding” from the developed nations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United Nations in September during the 76th Session of the General Assembly that they intend to ratify the agreement but that they hadn’t yet despite being one of its first signatories due to “injustices related to state obligations and burden sharing.”
He said they have decided to ratify the agreement following recent progress made within its framework without elaborating.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Ankara’s ratification of the agreement, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
“It’s essential that all countries continue to boost ambition, and the Secretary-General has been clear that G20 countries must lead the way,” Dujarric said.