CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2021) Iraqi President Barham Salih has approved the country's accession to the Paris agreement on climate change, confirming Baghdad's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the presidential office said on Wednesday.
"The President of the Republic of Iraq, Barham Salih, approved Iraq's accession to the Paris Agreement on climate change ... President Salih said that he was pleased to do so because it was a step toward countering the threat that Iraq and the world faced from climate change and things like greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution," the statement said.
On December 12, Salih took part in the UN-organized Climate Ambition Summit 2020 dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris climate agreement. In his speech, Salih reaffirmed Baghdad's intention to support the use of renewable energy sources, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight environmental pollution.
"In order to start work swiftly after Iraq agreed to join the Paris Agreement, President Salih said the country had started writing its nationally determined contributions (NDCs). These would make for a foundational framework whenever Iraq made policy regarding climate change in the future, worked towards a green and sustainable economy or curbed carbon emissions," the statement said.
The Paris Agreement, which signed in 2016, vows to keep the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels in a bid to reduce the impact and risks of climate change. To this end, over 190 countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by the mid-century, which is a balance between the volume of carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide absorption by soil, forests and oceans.
