175 Countries Sign Paris Climate Treaty at UN Headquarters on International Mother Earth Day

Myron Ebell

Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Paris Climate Treaty on behalf of the United States along with representatives from 174 other countries at a gala, high-level ceremony at United Nations headquarters in New York City on 22nd April, a day which the UN General Assembly officially designated in 2009 as International Mother Earth Day.  It is also of course Vladimir Lenin’s birthday.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presided over short speeches by a number of heads of state and prime ministers, including Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Brazil’s Dina Rousseff, France’s Francois Hollande, and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.  Secretary Kerry said that “Paris was a turning point in the fight against climate change,” and that “the agreement we reached in Paris is the strongest, most ambitious global climate pact ever negotiated.”

Signing the treaty by 175 countries in one day breaks the old record of 119, set in 1982 for the Law of the Sea Treaty.  The U. S. Senate, by the way, has never ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty, which everyone agrees is a treaty requiring ratification.  Whether the Senate will ever vote on the Paris Climate Treaty remains to be seen......To Read More ......