Slovak President Andrej Kiska will visit the UN headquarters in New York this week to sign the climate change agreement agreed upon at the end of last year in Paris, TASR reported on Tuesday. Kiska will be accompanied by Environment Minister László Sólymos on the trip. During his stay in New York, Kiska is scheduled to hold several meetings with top UN representatives, as well as heads of state. Kiska will also take part in the UN event on the implementation of global permanently sustainable targets featured in Agenda 2030.
A record-high number of 155 countries are set to ink the agreement in New York on Earth Day on Friday, April 22. Over 60 heads of state or governments are expected to take part in the ceremony. This is a new international agreement on measures against climate change. Its long-term goal is to maintain the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, using the temperature levels of some 250 years ago when the industrial era began as the base on which to calibrate. Some countries are striving to limit that rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The agreement, the result of the Paris UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21), does not count on giving up fossil fuels nor does it limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions either. However, it counts on the fact that individual countries will adopt national targets leading to reduction of emissions, technological modernisation and adaptation to climate change.
In order to take effect, the agreement needs to be ratified by individual countries. At least 55 countries which are responsible for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are obliged to do so. Nevertheless, the Paris document will not take effect before January 1, 2020. As soon as all the ratification procedures are met, the Paris agreement will replace the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997.
