China announced on Saturday, Sept. 3, that it has ratified the international climate change agreement that was adopted following the Paris summit last year.
The Xinhua News Agency said lawmakers voted to have the Paris accord to be reviewed and ratified at the bimonthly meeting of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.
China's ratification of the emissions-cutting deal comes a day before it hosts the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou city this weekend.
The United States is also expected to announce its adoption of the Paris agreement ahead of the G-20 meeting. U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Hangzhou on Saturday and is scheduled to talk about global warming during his stay in the country.
The Obama administration hasn't always seen eye to eye with Beijing on various diplomatic issues such as the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the recent cyber hacking incidents and the United States' planned deployment of an anti-missile system to South Korea.
However, both Washington and Beijing have stated in the past that they are willing cooperate with one another in order to fight climate change.
"Climate will be a centerpiece of our agenda" at the G-20, Obama said. "Joint U.S.-Chinese leadership was part of the reason that we were able to get Paris done."
China and the United States are considered to be the two biggest carbon emitters in the world, producing as much as 40 percent of total CO2 emissions. Their adoption of the Paris agreement would provide a significant boost to international efforts to curb the impact of climate change on the planet.
Adoption Of The Paris Climate Agreement
About 200 countries pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions at the climate change summit in the French capital last December. This is to ensure that the average global temperature does not reach beyond the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) threshold.
Climate experts, however, warned that the world is already on the brink of breaching the temperature target. The United Nations' weather agency said that 2016 is well on its way to becoming the hottest year ever to be recorded, exceeding even the high temperatures from last year.
For the Paris accord to legally take effect, 55 countries — representing at least 55 percent of total global carbon emissions — need to officially ratify the agreement.
China has now joined the 23 other nations that have ratified the climate change deal. However, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said these countries account for only 1.08 percent of total global emissions collectively.
