Brazil signs into law Paris Agreement

Brazil’s President Michel Temer signed into law the Paris Agreement on Climate Change on Monday – the World Environment Day 2017.

The Paris Agreement is now law in Brazil, with Temer highlighting his environmental commitment during the ceremony.

“Brazil will make its contribution, it will meet the height of its responsibility. We know climate change is a real problem and we must face it in a systematic and vigorous way. Its effects are already being felt, in Brazil and in the world,” he said.

The Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 parties in Paris in 2015 and it went into effect in November last year. The pact sets a target of holding the global average rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 degree Celsius.

Last September, Brazil ratified the document, which means that the country must reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 37 percent by 2025, and by 43 percent by 2030, from 2005 levels.

Also at the ceremony, Brazil’s Environment Minister, Jose Sarney Filho, expressed his concerns about US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to pull the United States out of the Paris accord.

Residents rally against Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement in Westport, Connecticut.

“We are showing the world that Brazil’s commitment to this implementation will be unbreakable. We reiterate our deep preoccupation with the recent decision by the American government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement,” said the minister.

To mark the World Environment Day, Temer also signed decrees to expand three federal conservation units and establish a new national park, bringing Brazil’s total protected land to over 347,000 hectares.

(CGTN)