Fears that the momentum from COP21 in Paris would fizzle in the
following months appear to have been dashed at the official Paris
Agreement signing session which took place in New York last Friday
22nd April. Not only did representatives from 175 Parties attend to
sign the Agreement, but fifteen of them – primarily small
island states particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts
– deposited their instruments of ratification at the same
time.
This is but the first step in the Paris Agreement taking legal
effect; in order for it to enter into force, Article 21 of the
Agreement provides that 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of
global CO2 emissions must ratify the text. Thirty days thereafter,
the Agreement takes effect as a binding component of international
environmental law. Although the fifteen countries who have already
taken the ratification step account for a tiny fraction of global
emissions, the signs are that the major emitters intend to
