MARRAKESH, November 8. /TASS/. The Paris climate deal ratification by over 90 countries just several months after its signing was initiated by the United States over Washington’s fears that a new US administration might cancel it, Russian presidential adviser Alexander Bedritsky told TASS on Tuesday.
"The Paris agreement comes into existence and is set to start working in 2021 and all are hurrying to ratify it. A question arises: why? The most real reason is that this process was initiated by the US as the president fears that a successor will come and cancel the country’s participation in that agreement. Otherwise, a successor will be able to cancel the accords only in four years," Bedritsky said, noting that he saw "nothing else but the ambitions" of the US leadership.
There is no need for the urgent ratification of the Paris climate change deal, the Russian presidential adviser said.
"In this case, this rush with the ratification and the discussion overshadows and subdues the acuteness of solving the problem of elaborating mechanisms for the implementation of the agreement. If you make a stir and say it is necessary to ratify the agreement, it is necessary to stimulate the development of these mechanisms. Otherwise, it simply won’t work - this is an empty sound, a PR-action," Bedritsky said.
Not a single country that has ratified the climate change deal has developed any strategy of low-carbon development to date to implement the document, the expert said.
"Therefore, this is a purely political step because real ratification should be accompanied by the real demonstration of a country’s readiness to participate in it," the Russian presidential adviser said.
As of today, 96 countries have ratified the Paris climate change deal, which is set to replace the Kyoto protocol expiring in 2020.
The document was opened for signing on April 22, 2016 and on October 5 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that it would enter into force on November 4.