Heads of State and Government, vice presidents and ministers from five continents signed the document adopted last December in Paris, motivated by the need of limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius.
The world leaders signed the initiative accompanied by 197 children, the same number of members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The ceremony on Friday turned the Paris Climate Agreement into the instrument with the largest number of accessions in its first day open for signature.
The old record for international countries signing an agreement goes back to the Law of the Sea in Montego Bay, which was signed by 119 countries in 1982.
Before the signing, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the President of the UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft, and several leaders expressed the importance of the accord and to translate it into action.
As stated, the Paris Climate Agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have signed it.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also attended the session.
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PL-41/MNA