China, US hand papers to join climate deal to UN chief

By Tevfik Durul

BEIJING (AA) – Chinese President Xi Jinping and his United States counterpart Barack Obama handed documents ratifying their countries’ participation in an international climate change deal to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon ahead of a G20 summit in China.

State news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying that climate change “concerns the well-being and future of humanity”, calling on the international community to implement the Paris Agreement and facilitate its full operation.

He described the deal, struck by over 190 countries in December to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, as charting “the course for post-2020 global cooperation against climate change”.

The Paris climate deal has become the first legally binding and universal agreement on climate change in over 20 years of UN negotiations.

The text of the deal foresees a revision of national plans, aiming to cut carbon emissions, as well as creating a $100-billion support package for developing countries.

Current greenhouse-gas emissions agreements will expire in 2020.

Obama arrived in the coastal city of Hangzhou on Saturday for the 2016 G20 summit, set to be held Sunday through Monday.