Prague, Sept 5 (CTK) – The Czech Chamber of Deputies passed on Tuesday the Paris climate agreement against global warming, whose ratification the Senate, the upper house of parliament, approved in April.
It is yet to be signed by President Milos Zeman.
The main goal of the Paris agreement on climate protection is to keep the increase in the average global temperature below two degrees Celsius, compared with the pre-industrial period, and as close as 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Paris document replaces the Kyoto Protocol from 1997.
The Chamber of Deputies received the draft last October and it started dealing with it in December.
It has been mainly opposed by the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). It is afraid of its impact and questions its harmony with the constitution.
Zbynek Stanjura, chairman of the ODS deputy group, said on Tuesday the agreement could not be exacted and did not include any sanctions.
Environment Minister Richard Brabec (ANO) said the agreement was the Czech Republic’s small contribution to the global effort to change the trend of increasing greenhouse gases.
The Czech Republic is the last EU member state not to have ratified the agreement yet.
The agreement was signed by representatives of almost 200 countries in Paris in December 2015. It took effect last November regardless of the stance of the Czech Republic.
Fifty-five countries, which are responsible for more than 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, have ratified the agreement so far.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced in June that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and would like to negotiate different conditions. Most of the countries condemned the step.
In reaction to it, other giant air polluters, Russia and China, announced that they would stick to the agreement.
However, the U.S. can officially withdraw from the agreement as of 2020 only.
