Climate deal ratified

Manama : The Kingdom has ratified the Paris Climate Agreement in accordance with the Royal Decree 75/2016 issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Bahrain’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Jamal Fares Al-Ruwaie, deposited the Kingdom’s documents ratifying the Kingdom’s entry into the Paris Agreement to the United Nations at a function held on Friday at the UN headquarters in New York.

The move is in accordance with the steps being taken by the Kingdom to protect the environment and adopt the basis of sustainable development.

Bahrain is among the first countries to ratify the agreement in whose meetings the Supreme Council for the Environment had participated.

The Paris climate deal was agreed by 200 countries last December. It aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fossil fuels to curb  global warming to below two degrees Celsius.

Earlier this year Bahrain joined 174 countries in signing the historic Paris Agreement, the first global deal on climate change, at the UN headquarters. 

According to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, “ratification” defines the international act whereby a country indicates its consent to be bound to an international agreement. Ratification is evidenced by depositing an instrument of ratification with the depository. 

This gives parties the necessary time to seek approval of the agreement domestically and to enact any necessary national legislation to give domestic effect to that agreement.

Instruments of “acceptance” or “approval” of an agreement have the same legal effect as ratification and consequently express the consent of a country to be bound by an agreement. 

Based on their national Constitutions, some countries accept or approve an agreement rather than ratify.

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in 2020. 

The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on December 12, 2015.  

It was opened for signature on April 22, 2016 (Earth Day) at a ceremony in New York.  As of December 2016, 194 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty, 119 of which have ratified it. 

After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016, there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world’s greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force.