Cote d'Ivoire to ratify Paris climate accord by end of 2016: president

President of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, Thursday said that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change by the end of this year.

The president, addressing the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, said that the West African country would deposit the instruments of ratification of the Paris Agreement before the end of 2016.

Cote d'Ivoire is among a group of countries that have committed to ratifying and depositing their legal instruments this year. That group includes Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, the European Union, France, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Poland and South Korea.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he is heartened by the group's "tremendous support" for bringing the Agreement into force in 2016.

Adopted in Paris by the 195 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a conference held in the French capital in December, the Paris Agreement calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low-carbon future, and to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

Specifically, it seeks to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The accord, which was signed in New York on April 22 by 175 countries at the largest, single-day signing ceremony in history, will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification. Endit