Syria to ink Paris Pact, leaves US isolated on climate treaty

BONN: Syria has announced that it will sign the Paris Agreement. The announcement was made by the Syrian delegate during the UN climate talks, which are currently underway.

With this, the US now stands isolated, and has become the only country to reject the global climate treaty finalised in Paris in 2015. Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2012.

This made it impossible for the country to undertake the requisite diligence to participate in the Paris Agreement. Every country is expected to submit a national plan to slow down global warming.

In December 2015, when the Paris Agreement was finalised, Syria had been diplomatically isolated. It was also the time when France, which hosted that year's climate talks, had ordered air strikes on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria following the terrorist attack in Paris. In late October, Nicaragua joined the Paris Agreement.

The central American nation had earlier refused to join the climate treaty arguing that it was not ambitious or far-reaching enough. With both Syria and Nicaragua now joining the Paris Agreement, the US has been isolated.

In June, President Donald Trump announced that he would be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Under the terms of the treaty, the US will not be able to withdraw from the agreement before 2020.

Nonetheless, President Trump has made it clear that the US would not be party to an agreement that was unfair and undermined its interests.