Thirty-one more nations have ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, bringing the total to 60, the U.N. announced on Wednesday, while an environment official said Cambodia would do the same by year’s end.
“Now it’s under review by the Council of Ministers,” said Heng Chan Thoeun, deputy director of the Environment Ministry’s climate change department. “After it passes the Council of Ministers, it will be taken to the National Assembly to be adopted.”
The Paris Agreement, drafted during U.N.-hosted climate talks in December, commits signatories to reducing emissions with a view to keeping global temperatures less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Cambodia sent delegates to the talks and has prepared an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) plan detailing how the country would both reduce emissions and adapt to the warming planet.
The INDC commits Cambodia to reducing its emissions by 3,100 gigatons of “carbon dioxide equivalent” by 2030. “Cambodia is one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world,” the document states, attributing the vulnerability both to the country’s topography and the population’s reliance on agriculture.
