TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2021) Japan welcomes US President Joe Biden's executive order to return the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Thursday.
"Japan is seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 and build a carbon-neutral society, and this course is in line with the US policy," Motegi said.
According to the foreign minister, climate change is an important challenge for the international community.
"Our country, in cooperation with the United States, including in the field of advanced technologies, will continue to lead the international community to build a carbon-neutral society, as required by the Paris agreement," Motegi added.
On Wednesday, new US President Joe Biden signed three executive orders, including one on the United States rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. The decision reverses former President Donald Trump's move to abandon the accord.
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change adopted by over 190 states on December 12, 2015, which entered into force on November 4, 2016. The agreement was designed to keep the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. To this end, countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century, that is a balance between the volume of carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide absorption by soil, forests and oceans.
In 2017, Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the agreement, finalizing the exit last year.
