The agreement was ratified unanimously.
Croatian Parliament on Friday unanimously ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change, which Croatia signed in April last year and which aims to reduce global warming.
The voting was preceded by a debate. Gordan Maras (SDP) said that he supported the law, but warned that Croatia should prepare a map which would show where in Croatia flora and fauna lives and how that might change given the climate change issues. “For example, due to global warming, in 40-50 years spruce will not grow where it grows now”, warned Maras.
Independent Member of Parliament Željko Glasnović warned that the proposed law would not be effective if it is not implemented. “We have all the information on the internet. It’s amazing data, but the war will be won at the tactical level”, said Glasnović.
Vesna Pusić (HNS) said that uncontrolled emissions through climate change had produced migrations, because in some areas it is no longer possible to live off the land. “In particular danger are those countries in which an international famine crisis has been announced, from where more and more people are fleeing and coming to various European and African countries. This trend cannot be stopped with any violence, cages or wire fences”, said Pusić, adding that it can be prevented only by stopping climate change and by opening new opportunities to those people in their countries to live from agriculture. “Many of the wars that we are witnessing today have been directly or indirectly caused by climate change”. said Pusić.
Miro Bulj (MOST) reacted to Pusić’s speech. “All those who have signed the agreement are to blame for the wars and climate. These countries are much more developed than Croatia, they are interested solely and primarily in their own development, and for them we are only a market to sell their products”, said Bulj.
Željko Bigović, state secretary at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, accepted Maras’s suggestion that a map of Croatian flora and fauna should be prepared. He also informed members of Parliament that the European Union has set aside special funds for renewable energy and that Croatia will participate in using these funds.
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the Paris Conference and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016, there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world’s greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force. The agreement went into effect on 4 November 2016.
