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High-Level Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement

22 April 2016

From 22 April 2016 to 17 April 2017 the Paris Agreement will be open for signature in New York. A country’s signature on the agreement is the first step in the necessary domestic process that is supposed to lead to the agreement's final entry into force.

To use political momentum of the COP and to further engage political actors to put the agreement into action, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon invited all world leaders to a High-Level Signing Ceremony on 22nd April. The signing takes place at UN Headquaters in New York and also coincides with International Mother Earth Day.

"The number of countries that have indicated their intentions to attend and sign the Paris Agreement on 22 April is now up to 155," said UN Secretary General's spokesperson Farhan Haq, in a press conference on the 15 April – a week before the signing ceremony.

At least 55 countries, representing at least 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, are needed to ratify the agreement before it can take legal effect.

You can follow the signing on a Live Blog by the World Resources Institute.