MARRAKECH, November 16. /TASS/. Russia has been focused on developing the documents envisaged by the Paris Agreement and calls on other countries to set up mechanisms to implement the accord, Russian Presidential Adviser on Climate Change Alexander Bedritsky told reporters on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP-22) in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.
"The Paris agreement will come into effect in 2021, so I believe we are taking reasonable steps trying to develop, discuss and adopt national documents envisaged by the Paris Agreement, which include a low-emission development strategy and an adaptation plan. These are the most important documents that could be called road maps needed to implement the low-emission development trend," Bedritsky said.
According to the Russian presidential adviser, Moscow welcomes the ratification of the Paris Agreement by some countries but "urges to develop mechanisms to implement the Paris Agreement and the documents that it stipulates." According to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 109 countries have already ratified the Paris Agreement, and the number has been constantly growing.
The Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015, at the COP-21 UN Climate Change Conference held in the capital of France. The 195 forum participants agreed to avert a rise in the average global air temperature by more than 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 compared to the pre-industrial era. Scientists believe higher temperatures may bring about irreversible consequences for the environment.
The Paris Agreement comes forward as a replacement for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2020. A minimum of fifty-five countries that account for 55% of the global greenhouse gas emissions should ratify the Agreement so it may come into effect. Ratification of the document by the US and China became an important step towards achieving this goal. In June, Russian Presidential Adviser Alexander Bedritsky told TASS that Russia will join the Paris Agreement no sooner than in 2019-2020.