Photo taken on June 23, 2017 shows a Tibetan antelope in Nagqu, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)
Syrian representatives at the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 23) in Bonn have announced that their country will belatedly join the Paris Climate Accord, German media dpa and Spiegel reported on Tuesday.
The secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said it was not yet able to confirm media reports.
The decision would leave Washington isolated as the only state registered by the United Nations (UN) not to ratify the treaty. The Trump administration intends to formally leave the Paris Climate Accord by the year 2020.
The Paris treaty obliges its signatories to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in an attempt to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
In order to draw attention to the acute threat of rising sea levels, this year's COP is presided over by the Pacific island nation of Fiji whilst technically being hosted by Germany. The key objective of the two-week conference is to formulate uniform standards for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions with a view to the objectives agreed to in Paris.
Syria was unable to participate in the 2015 conference which first witnessed the entry of states into the Paris Climate Accord due to its simultaneously raging civil war and UN sanctions against the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.
France is organizing another multilateral climate summit in Paris which will take place on the second anniversary of the original conference, Dec. 12. A spokesperson for French President Emmanuel Macron said that U.S. President Donald Trump was "not invited so far".
