Belt & Road Initiative countries push for full implementation of Paris Agreement

The statement of support was included in a Joint Communique issued after the leaders roundtable discussion of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held at the Yanqi Lake International Convention Center here from May 14 to 15. (Photo: Philippine News Agency)

BEIJING– Countries along the China-led Belt and Road Initiative routes have pushed for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The statement of support was included in a Joint Communique issued after the leaders roundtable discussion of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held at the Yanqi Lake International Convention Center here from May 14 to 15.

”We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through taking urgent action on climate change and encouraging all parties which have ratified it to fully implement the Paris Agreement,” the Joint Communique stated.

A total of 30 heads of states and government leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, attended the Forum themed: “Strengthening international cooperation and co-building the ‘Belt and Road’ for win-win development.”

The leaders also agreed to manage the natural resources in “an equitable and sustainable manner, conserving and sustainably using oceans and seas, freshwater resources, as well as forests, mountains and dry lands.”

The joint communique provides also that cooperation should be enhanced to ensure protection of the environment, biodiversity and natural resources, ecosystems and wildlife, and combating desertification and land degradation.

”Enhancing cooperation in addressing the impact of climate change, in promoting resilience and disaster-risk reduction and management, and in advancing renewable energy efficiency,” it added.

Aside from Xi and Putin, other heads of state and government leaders who attended the first Belt and Road Forum include Presidents Rodrigo Duterte (Philippines), Joko Widodo (Indonesia), Tran Dai Quang (Vietnam) Doris Leuthard (Swiss Confederation), Mauricio Macri (Argentina), Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus), Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Milos Zeman (Czech Republic), Nursultan Nazarbeyev ( Kazakhstan), Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey), Shavkat Mirziyoyev (Uzbekistan), Bounnhang Vorachit (Lao) and Almazbek Atambayev (Krygyzstan).

The Prime Ministers include Hailemariam Desalegn (Ethiopia), Voreqe Bainimarama (Fiji), Alexis Tsipras (Greece), Viktor Orban (Hungary), Paolo Gentiloni (Italy), Jargaltulga Erdenebat (Mongolia), Nawaz Sharif (Pakistan), Beata Szydlo (Poland), Aleksandar Vucic (Serbia), Mariano Rajoy (Spain), Ranil Wickremesinghe (Sri Lanka), Najib Razak (Malaysia), Hun Sen (Cambodia) and Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde also attended the leaders’ roundtable discussion.

According to the UN website, a total of 141 countries have ratified the Paris Agreement which aims to limit global temperatures rise to at two degrees Celsius or 1.5 degrees Celsius, if possible, to fend off devastating effects of climate change.

The agreement is also called ‘COP21’ since 195 countries adopted it by consensus at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris on December 12, 2015.

Based on the UN list as of April 2016, Chile as well as Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are among countries represented by the leaders in the Belt and Road Forum that have neither signed nor deposited their instrument of ratification of the Paris accord.

Last March, the Philippine Senate unanimously ratified the Paris Agreement after President Duterte signed the agreement on February 28, this year.

China, the world’s second largest economy, ratified the COP21 in September last year as it promised to cut carbon emissions by 60-65 percent per unit of GDP by 2030.