The UK Prime Minister has announced during the United Nations meeting in New York that the UK will sign the Paris mood agreementbefore the conclusion of the twelvemonth . This follows a string of high - visibility Carry Amelia Moore Nation , including the US and China , that have   already done so , as well as another 31 countries formally joining   the accordance on Wednesday , bring the deal within salient distance of coming into force .

For the Paris Agreement to be officially enacted , it requires that 55 countries   from the 185 parties that signed the agreement ( representing at least 55 per centum of global greenhouse gas   emissions ) to sign the deal . Currently , the figure of speech stands at 60 nation that account for 47.76 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions . This mean that the first specification has already been converge .

“ I ’m ever more confident that the Paris agreement will enter into force play this year , ” said United Nations Secretary - General Ban Ki - moon , reportedThe Guardian . “ I appeal to all leaders to speed up domestic arrangements to join this twelvemonth . ”

The UK is thought to be around the 14th bombastic emitter of CO2 in the world , and so not an peanut contributor . However , ratifying the deal is more of a message to other Carry Amelia Moore Nation that the land is serious in the combat against the threat posed by climate change .

In her maiden actor’s line to the United Nations , the UK Prime Minister Theresa Maysaid : “ Some of the threats that we confront together today are familiar to those founding leaders : warfare , political instability , revilement of human rights and poorness . Others are new : globular terrorist act , mood alteration , and unprecedented mass movement of people . ”

“ We will proceed to play our part in the international effort against climate change , ” Maycontinued . “ And in a demonstration of our committal to the arrangement reached in Paris , the UK will start its domestic procedures to enable confirmation of the Paris agreement , and fill out these before the ending of the year . ”

Worry had begun to spread among environmental groups and nominee when Theresa May took office in July , after one of her first relocation was toabolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change . This fresh annunciation , however , is sure to allay those concern , and demonstrate that Britain will continue to fight mood change even after it has depart the European Union .

When the Paris climate agreement was sign at the end of last yr , the UK did so as part of the EU before the events of Brexit , and so was tied upwith the European city block during negotiations as each member state has to concord to the treaty . It also meant that the UK would have been subjugate emanation as one appendage of the uniting , although individual nations were able to sign the accord on their own , as demonstrate by France doing so in June , and as Germany is expected to do in a affair of weeks .

It is thought that the UK had come under increasing pressure since the United States and China made a joint announcement earlier this monthto ratify the great deal , a move that was closely followed by Brazil , which is one of the largest prepare economies in the world and thus expect to become one of the biggest emitters of carbon copy dioxide .