Turkey becomes last G-20 country to ratify Paris climate agreement

Turkey became the last nation from the Group of 20 (G-20) countries to ratify the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global warming levels, Reuters reported.

The ratification was signed off on by the Turkish parliament on Wednesday. The parliamentary statement noted that it was ratifying the climate agreement as a developing country despite the fact that the United Nations (U.N.) Framework Convention on Climate Change recognizes Turkey as an industrialized country under the Annex I list. 

Separately, Turkey requested that its name be removed from the Annex I list of countries, the wire service noted. Among the countries included in that list are the United States, Australia, China, Russia and the United Kingdom.

If Turkey was considered a developing nation, it would stand to gain benefits from the Paris climate agreement such as insurance and investment. 

The stipulation over how Turkey is classified is what led the country to hold off on ratifying the agreement despite the fact that it has been a signatory of the deal since April 2016, Reuters reported. However, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signaled during the U.N. General Assembly that the country would ratify the deal.

“Whoever made the most damage to nature, our air, our water, our soil, the earth; whoever savagely exploited natural resources needs to make the largest contribution to the fight against climate change,” Erdoğan said in September, according to the news outlet.

The move comes as the U.N. climate summit is set to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, starting later this month. The 12-day event seeks to hear pledges from countries on how they will limit warming to a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels. 

Earlier this month, President Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said he was optimistic about the progress that could be made during the climate summit, but he also noted that there was still much work to be done.

“The bottom line is, folks, as we stand here today, we believe we can make enormous progress in Glasgow, moving rapidly towards the new goals that the science is telling us we must achieve,” Kerry said in Milan.