Ambassador Kennedy's Statement on Japan's Vote to Ratify the Paris Agreement

November 8, 2016

I would like to congratulate Japan on ratifying the Paris Agreement today.

This has truly been a historic year for climate action. Last December, the world came together to craft an unprecedented agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This month, the Paris Agreement entered into legal force, and today, Japan's Diet voted to become a party to it.

With Japan's participation, more than 100 countries, including five of the planet's top six emitters, have ratified the accord. This week, as the signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Marrakesh to chart the way forward, we celebrate Japan's formal decision to join the effort.

The Diet's action today helps send a powerful signal to the world: political momentum behind the Paris Agreement remains overwhelming. This momentum will open the floodgates for businesses, and scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation at an unprecedented scale. We are moving toward a low-emissions economy, and clean energy is our future.

For the first time, we have in place an ambitious, durable agreement that has all countries working together to address the common challenge of climate change. As President Obama has said, future generations may look back on this as "the moment we finally decided to save our planet."