Turkey’s Parliament ratifies the Paris Climate Agreement

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Signed by Turkey along with 196 other countries in 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was discussed at the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) yesterday (October 6).

Approved in a unanimous vote at the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Affairs the other day, the legislative proposal foreseeing the ratification of the Paris Agreement has passed the Parliament with 353 votes.

Published in the Official Gazette today, the law foreseeing the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement has entered in force in Turkey. Turkey's decision will now be notified to the United Nations (UN) Secretariat and Turkey will become a party to the Paris Agreement. 

Turkey was among the six countries, along with Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, which had not yet ratified the Paris Agreement. It was also the only G20 country which had not ratified the Agreement.

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), the United Nations (UN) has welcomed Turkey's ratification of the Paris Agreement in a move that will contribute to global efforts against the climate crisis.

"It's essential that all countries continue to boost ambition, and the Secretary-General has been clear that G20 countries must lead the way," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres, told AA.

Dujarric's remarks were made shortly after all political parties in Turkey's Parliament voted "Yes" to the agreement.

Paris Climate Agreement

On December 12, 2015, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached an agreement to fight climate change and achieve a sustainable low-carbon future at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France.

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.

Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

To achieve this long-term temperature goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century.

As of November 2020, 194 states and the European Union have signed the Agreement. 187 states and the EU, representing about 79 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified or acceded to the Agreement, including China and India, the countries with the 1st and 3rd largest CO2 emissions among UNFCCC members.

As of November 2020 the only countries with over 1 percent share of global emissions which were not parties were the United States, Iran, and Turkey.

As Russia signed the act ratifying participation in the Paris Agreement, Turkey remained the only G20 country which had not yet ratified the agreement. (KÖ/TP/SD)