The European Parliament voted Tuesday to approve ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change, signaling the accord’s entry into force will be triggered in a matter of days. “Today the European Union turned climate ambition into climate action. The Paris Agreement is the first of its kind and it would not have been possible were it not for the European Union,” Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said in a press release.
The Paris Agreement, which establishes a legal framework under which nations are to pursue nationally determined actions to address climate change, will enter into force 30 days after 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined. As of Sunday, 62 nations representing 51.89 percent of global emissions have taken that step.
On Friday, European Union environmental ministers approved the early ratification of the Paris Agreement, allowing the bloc to submit its ratification to the United Nations before all member states have ratified domestically.
EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete said last week that a yes vote by the parliament would result in the EU submitting to the United Nations its instrument of ratification no later than Oct. 5.
Tuesday’s announcement gives little certainly as to how exactly the EU ratification will move the dial on the GHG emissions count in the agreement. “The EU ratification and deposit will cross the 55% emission threshold and therefore trigger the entry into force of the Paris Agreement,” the release says without stating what percentage of emissions the ratification will cover.
In total, the 28 EU member states represent 12.1 percent of global emissions, but only seven member states have ratified the agreement domestically at this point. Those nations – Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Malta, and Portugal – are expected to submit their documents of ratification to the U.N. at the same time as the EU presents its document.
If only the emissions of those seven nations count toward the 55 percent tracker, they will add 4.57 percent. That would push the ticker to 56.46 percent, triggering entry into force.
EU member states will continue to ratify at the domestic level after the bloc has formally joined the agreement, the release explains.
If entry into force is triggered before Oct. 7, which appears likely in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement, the agreement will be in force before the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, scheduled for Nov. 7-18 in Marrakesh, Morocco.