Japan ratifies Paris climate deal four days after pact becomes law

Japan has announced on Tuesday (8 November) it has ratified the Paris deal on climate change after completing its "domestic procedures". It has become the latest country to join the landmark climate accord that came into effect last week.

By signing the pact, Japan has agreed to cut carbon emission and fight global warming, to help keep the global temperature rise to well below 2C above pre-industrial times.

"Japan aims to play a leading role in crafting arrangements that raises transparency in each country's emission cuts to help accomplish the spirit of the Paris agreement," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move comes after the House of Representatives, the lower house in Japan's parliament, approved the accord. The upper house endorsed the pact in late October.

The delay in ratification could, however, limit the country's ability to influence negotiations on the finer details of the agreement, Reuters reported.

Discussions on how to implement the Paris Agreement have already begun with world leaders meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco this week. At a UN climate treaty conference, called COP-22, leaders are expected to sketch out a roadmap for signatory countries to achieve climate goals effectively. The Morocco deal is reported to be more important than the Paris deal itself.

Nearly 200 countries convened in Morocco, of which some 66 countries representing more than 60% of the world's emissions have ratified the pact.

The 12-day Marrakesh summit will see the first gathering of signatories to the pact on 15 November. Japan is said to be only an observer as it will not be a signatory until later.

The Paris climate accord was adopted during the COP-21 climate conference in December 2015 with an aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, and to limit floods, droughts, storms and rising ocean levels. It became a law on 4 November after several countries from the European nations, Canada, Bolivia and Nepal last month pushed the agreement past the 55% emitter limit needed for implementation.

Japan plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2030.

China and the US, which are the world's largest emitters of harmful carbons, ratified the deal during the G20 summit earlier in September. India, the third largest emitter, signed up for the deal in October.