US President Trump recently said ‘something could happen’ on the Paris climate accord, fuelling speculation that he might reconsider quitting the deal. Nicaragua and Syria are the only nations which have not signed the deal
No to Paris Climate Accord
Syria has been ravaged by civil war for six years, so it is understandable that it did not take part in the talks. But what about Nicaragua? Does the Central American country also toe the Trump line? Does it prefer fossil fuels?
Deal too soft
In November 2015, when world leaders met in Paris to reach an agreement on combating climate change, Nicaragua’s lead envoy Paul Oquist said the country would not support the agreed-upon plan as it hinged on voluntary pledges and would not punish those who failed to meet them, writes Adam Taylor in the Washington Post
‘Renewable energy paradise’
Nevertheless, the country already gets more than half of its energy from renewable sources and plans to bump it up to 90 per cent by 2020, according to the BBC. “Nicaragua is what many experts call a paradise of renewable energies: extensive geothermal resources … with excellent exposure to the wind and sun,” said a 2013 World Bank report
The goal of the Paris accord is to restrict temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Oquist had said at the conference that voluntary commitments would not be enough to achieve that goal