Brazil ratifies Paris climate change agreement

Brazil's President Michel Temer on Monday ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, which commits Brazil to reducing its carbon emissions by 37 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels.

In a ceremony in Brasilia, Temer highlighted that Brazil has made a further commitment to reducing its emissions by 43 percent by 2030.

In his speech, Temer said that Brazil had played a major part in climate agreements, such as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992 and the Rio +20 sustainable development conference in 2012.

"We are now on a path that started back then. The climate issue is a state issue. It is an obligation of all governments," he said.

The Minister of Environment, Jose Sarney Filho, said that the actions to which Brazil was committed would become central in economic and social policies.

"This is an opportunity to redirect the national development project if we act in a firm and ambitious manner," he said, adding that Brazil's climate change engagement went alongside its goals to grow the economy, fight poverty, create jobs and achieve "green" innovation and investment.

The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 during the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its 180 signatories committed themselves to maintaining global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

In order to enter into force, the Paris Agreement needs to be ratified by at least 55 countries responsible for a cumulative 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier in September, China and the United States formally ratified the treaty before the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China. Endit