The Head of European Union Delegation and the EU Special Representative, Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark issues the following statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina:

“Signing ceremony that opens on 22 April 2016 in the United Nations Headquarters will mark the first step toward ensuring that the Paris Agreement enters into force as soon as possible. The historic climate change agreement adopted last December in Paris will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global gas emissions, have deposited their instruments for ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.

Reaching the Paris Agreement has been a key accomplishment for the United Nations and intergovernmental cooperation as it represents first major multilateral deal of the 21st century. As it is the first universal and legally binding Agreement, it serves as a clear signal to all stakeholders that the future is geared toward global transition to clean energy and a shift away from fossil fuels. The global action plan is set to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C – and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

The EU and its Member States will strive for early ratification of the agreement as it represents an important step of our shared global commitment to tackling climate change. We welcome and strongly support the decision of respective Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities to sign the Paris Agreement. We further encourage the BiH authorities upon the signing to take necessary steps to ratify the Agreement as soon as possible and start putting in place policies identified in BiH Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) immediately to gain benefits quickly. To that end, we further encourage the responsible BiH authorities in area of environment to swiftly proceed with adoption of country-wide Strategy and Policy for the environment sector. These measures facilitating approximation with the relevant EU acquis will contribute to further improvements also in area of climate change.”