President Andrej Kiska, illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
The document, signed on September 28 means that Slovakia has committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Parliament approved the ratification on September 21.
Among the main goals of the agreement is to keep the increase in the average global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius, higher than pre-industrial levels, which will significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change, according to scientists.
The document will become fully valid only if it is ratified by 55 countries that together produce at least 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a list drawn up in 2015. Along with the USA and China (which both declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a UN forerunner), the Paris Agreement has already been ratified by 27 countries that produce 39 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Another 32 countries producing over 20 percent of emissions in total want to do so this year.
The agreement was adopted at the Paris climate conference in December 2015, with 195 countries agreeing to the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal.
On September 27, the Slovak President also inked other ratification documents, in particular, the Third Protocol to the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe and the Agreement on enhanced partnership and cooperation between the European Union and its member states and the Republic of Kazakhstan.
