http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-04/eu-poised-to-trigger-entry-of-paris-climate-deal-into-force

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-04/eu-poised-to-trigger-entry-of-paris-climate-deal-into-force

The European Union approved the ratification of the global climate deal, a step that is set to enable the most sweeping accord to combat pollution to come into force less than a year after it was signed in Paris.
The European Parliament voted Tuesday to endorse the union-level approval of the accord during a plenary session in Strasbourg, France, and the bloc’s governments rubber-stamped the decision several hours later. The EU aims to deposit its ratification document at the United Nations Friday, making the climate deal’s enactment criteria fulfilled. That would pave the way for the Paris agreement to take effect 30 days later, in time for the first meeting of parties to occur at this year’s UN climate-change conference starting on Nov. 7 in Morocco.
“Today the European Union turned climate ambition into climate action,” said European Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The EU, which wants to lead the global fight against climate change, has come under increasing pressure to ratify the Paris deal after U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping ratified it on Sept. 3. India approved the agreement on Oct. 2 and New Zealand followed on Tuesday, taking the number of countries that have joined the agreement to 63. Together, those nations are responsible for 52.11 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Global Emissions
The Paris accord needs to be ratified by at least 55 parties accounting for 55 percent of global emissions to enter into force. The EU’s 28 nations account together for 12 percent and the seven member states that already ratified the agreement domestically cover 4.57 percent, enough to meet the 55 percent requirement.

dv said:

India approved the agreement on Oct. 2 and New Zealand followed on Tuesday, taking the number of countries that have joined the agreement to 63.

Good to see that the political leaders of our region have signed up, even if Australia is being a bit of a laggard.

we’re doing a lot of work in Turkey at the moment on the hurried development of mine-to-mouth power station capacity in advance of the Paris deal…

seems there is a lot of scrambling occuring in some countries…