Just a few hours before President Donald Trump was set to announce whether he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz questioned the president’s reported intent to walk away from the accord.
"Syria and Nicaragua are the only nations that didn't sign the Paris Agreement. Nicaragua said it wasn't tough enough. What's Trump's excuse?" the representative from Florida tweeted June 1.
Trump’s promise to "cancel" the Paris Agreement is one of more than 100 promises we are tracking on the Trump-O-Meter.
News outlets reported that Trump was leaning toward exiting the global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global average temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.
Wasserman Schultz tweet left us wondering if she was right about only two nations — Syria and Nicaragua — not signing the agreement, and that the Central American nation refused to sign because the agreement "wasn’t tough enough." Information from the United Nations and statements by Nicaraguan representatives support her statement.
The Paris AgreementThe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. It consists of 197 Parties (196 States and 1 regional economic integration organization). Among them are the United States, Syria and Nicaragua.
The UNFCCC’s ultimate goal is "preventing ‘dangerous’ human interference with the climate system," that includes greenhouse gas concentrations, according to the UNFCCC’s website.
Parties to the UNFCCC during a December 2015 session in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement, seeking "to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change." One of the objectives is to hold the increase in global average temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
A total of 175 parties signed the agreement on April 22, 2016, according to information from the UN. The agreement remained opened for signatures from April 22, 2016, to April 21, 2017. The latest nation to sign was Uzbekistan, on April 19.
Overall total signatories: 195.
The only countries in the world that did not sign: Syria and Nicaragua.