Prague, Sept 21 (CTK) – The Czech government approved yesterday a proposal to ratify the U.N. Paris agreement in which countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and which is to take effect as of 2020, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has written on Twitter.
Now the document will go to the two houses of Czech parliament and President Milos Zeman.
“The government approved the proposal to ratify the Paris agreement, by which we have joined the previously agreed global goals of climate protection and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” Sobotka wrote.
Last December, Zeman said he would sign the Paris agreement.
Nevertheless, unlike other politicians, he voiced scepticism about the document, which he called a declaration of good intentions rather than a binding deal.
The basic goal of the Paris agreement is to keep the increase in the average global temperature, compared with the pre-industrial period, below two degrees Celsius and bring it as close to 1.5 degrees as possible.
The document calls on countries to seek the fastest possible global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The treaty will become binding after it is ratified by 55 countries that produce 55 percent of the overall greenhouse gas emissions at least.
The biggest polluters, China and the USA, joined the deal in early September as the 24th and 25th countries.
The Paris agreement is to replace the Kyoto Protocol as of 2020.
Most politicians consider the document effective, but critics object that it does not set any binding deadlines for the reduction of emissions and that countries’ commitments in it are not enough to achieve the temperature goal.
