The European Union agreed Friday to ratify the Paris climate change agreement with the goal of having the deal go into effect before the U.S. elections.
The U.S. and China ratified the deal together in September, but it still requires European agreement to go into effect before the end of the year. The deal was agreed to in December by nearly 200 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of reducing global warming by at least 2 degrees.
The European Parliament’s goal is to approve ratification of the climate accord by Oct. 4, the 28-nation bloc said Friday. “This decision brings the Paris agreement very close to entering into force,” the countries’ environment ministers said after agreeing to speed up the approval process.
An affirmative vote by the EU, which accounts for 12 percent of global emissions, would allow the Paris agreement to be ratified at the United Nations ahead of next month’s 22nd U.N. climate conference in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The deal requires 55 countries, representing 55 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, to enter into force. The agreement surpassed the number of countries, but is only at 48 percent of global emissions.
The nonbinding agreement will enter into force 30 days after the the emission goal is reached. Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for driving man-made climate change.
The 22nd conference of the parties (COP22) opens one day before the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 8 and will focus on implementing the Paris agreement. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he will pull out of the Paris agreement if elected president. Ratifying the deal before the next president is sworn in would make exiting the deal far more difficult, observers say.
“We must and we can hand over to future generations a world that is more stable, a healthier planet, fairer societies and more prosperous economies,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday. “This is not a dream. This is a reality and it is within our reach. Today we are closer to it.”
During the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, countries led by Morocco and Brazil submitted their countries’ formal ratification documents to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. But the countries’ efforts weren’t enough to move the Paris agreement into effect.
