Spain: Government Authorizes Signing Of Paris Agreement On Climate Change
Spain’s acting government also authorized the commission of an institutional advertising campaign to publicize the helpline for victims of school bullying and analyzed a report on the system of regional financing.
The Council of Ministers agreed to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted at the Conference of the Parties (COP) on 12 December 2015. The text seeks to avoid the average global temperature of the planet rising by more than 2ºC on pre-industrialization levels and to make an additional effort to ensure that global warming does not exceed 1.5ºC.
Acting Vice-Prime Minister of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, recalled that the agreement will be signed on 22 April at an event organized by the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon. “This is a key date for maintaining the impetus of the climate agenda following the Paris Summit and to endorse the commitments adopted in December last year in the French capital”, she said.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría underlined that, by signing this agreement, “Spain once again shows its commitment to the fight against climate change by reinforcing the proposals made to date, which have allowed the Kyoto Protocol to be complied with” and places our country on the path to meeting the obligations set from now to 2020.
According to Sáenz de Santamaría, the Paris Agreement “is an historic milestone in the fight against climate change, which is fundamental for fostering low emission development that is resilient for the climate and sustainable”, in which “innovation, investments and new technologies play a key role”. “This represents a very important step forward for the international community which, for the first time, has achieved universal participation,” she added.
This global and legally-binding agreement contains 189 national plans to combat this phenomenon, which cover 97% of greenhouse gas emissions.