The Republic of Macedonia on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 deposited its instruments of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, making the former Yugoslav Republic the 173rd Party to the global treaty.

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Macedonia’s ratification will come into force on February 8, 2018.

Previously, Montenegro (172nd), DR Congo (171st), Syria (170th), Nicaragua (169th), Switzerland (168th), the Czech Republic (167th), Dominican Republic (166th) and Cape Verde (165th) had deposited their instruments of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Before this, Liechtenstein (164th), Ecuador (163rd), Myanmar (162nd) and Bhutan (161st), had also ratified the treaty.

The Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015 at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris, France from November 30 to December 13, 2015.

On December 12, 2017 governments and representatives from all over the world gathered in Paris at the instance of French President, Emmanuel Macron, to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement at the One Planet Summit. The Summit presented an opportunity to reaffirm global climate commitments to combat climate change and to emphasise the transition from negotiation to implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016, 30 days after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55% of the total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Depositary.

The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention (UNFCCC) and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. As such, it charts a new course in the global climate effort.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have agreed a new, wide-ranging collaboration to accelerate action to curb environmental health risks that cause an estimated 12.6 million deaths a year.

On Wednesday, January 10, 2017 in Nairobi, Mr Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, signed an agreement to step up joint actions to combat air pollution, climate change and antimicrobial resistance, as well as improve coordination on waste and chemicals management, water quality, and food and nutrition issues. The collaboration also includes joint management of the BreatheLife advocacy campaign to reduce air pollution for multiple climate, environment and health benefits.

This represents the most significant formal agreement on joint action across the spectrum of environment and health issues in over 15 years.

“There is an urgent need for our two agencies to work more closely together to address the critical threats to environmental sustainability and climate – which are the foundations for life on this planet. This new agreement recognises that sober reality,” said UN Environment’s Solheim.

“Our health is directly related to the health of the environment we live in. Together, air, water and chemical hazards kill more than 12.6 million people a year. This must not continue,” said WHO’s Tedros.

He added: “Most of these deaths occur in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America where environmental pollution takes its biggest health toll.”

The new collaboration creates a more systematic framework for joint research, development of tools and guidance, capacity building, monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals, global and regional partnerships, and support to regional health and environment fora.

The two agencies will develop a joint work programme and hold an annual high-level meeting to evaluate progress and make recommendations for continued collaboration.

The WHO-UN Environment collaboration follows a “Ministerial Declaration on Health, Environment and Climate Change” calling for the creation of a global “Health, Environment and Climate Change” Coalition, at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 22 in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2016.

Just last month, under the overarching topic “Towards a Pollution-Free Planet”, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), which convenes environment ministers worldwide, adopted a resolution on Environment and Health, called for expanded partnerships with relevant UN agencies and partners, and for an implementation plan to tackle pollution.

Priority areas of cooperation between WHO and UN Environment include:

• Air Quality – More effective air quality monitoring including guidance to countries on standard operating procedures; more accurate environment and health assessments, including economic assessment; and advocacy, including the BreatheLife campaign promoting air pollution reductions for climate and health benefits.
• Climate – Tackling vector-borne disease and other climate-related health risks, including through improved assessment of health benefits from climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
• Water – Ensuring effective monitoring of data on water quality, including through data sharing and collaborative analysis of pollution risks to health.
• Waste and chemicals – Promotion of more sustainable waste and chemicals management, particularly in the area of pesticides, fertilisers, use of antimicrobials . The collaboration aims to advance the goal of sound lifecycle chemicals management by 2020, a target set out at the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Ongoing WHO/UN Environment collaboration includes:

• Ministerial Declaration on Health, Environment and Climate Change –WHO/UN Environment announcement at COP22
• BreatheLife campaign has engaged countries, regions and cities in commitments to reduce air pollution for climate and health benefits, covering more than 120 million people across the planet, including Santiago, Chile; London, England; Washington DC, USA, and Oslo, Norway, with major cities in Asia and Africa set to join.
• Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) – which has included effective past actions to phase out lead paint, mercury emissions and persistent organic pollutants.

Some 15 people are dead in California’s Santa Barbara County following devastating mudslides in the area stripped by recent wildfires.

More than two dozen people remain unaccounted for, leading officials to warn that the death toll will likely rise as emergency workers make it into damaged homes.

“It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, down trees, power lines, wrecked cars – lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff, Bill Brown said.

One man, Thomas Tighe, told a local news station that he witnessed two cars traveling sideways in the street through a “river of mud.” Another said the mud came “in an instant, like a dam breaking.”

On Wednesday morning, 300 people were trapped in the Romero Canyon area of Montecito because debris was blocking their way out of the neighborhood, Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Yaneris Muniz said.

“We can’t get to them, and they can’t get to us. … Once we have daybreak, you will see helicopters start rescuing people there,” Muniz said.

As the storm hit hard between 3 and 6 a.m. on Tuesday, sheriff’s office dispatchers handled more than 600 phone calls for assistance, Brown said.

US 101 in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara will remain closed for at least 48 hours, authorities said on Tuesday.

By Tuesday, more than 5.5 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Ventura County over two days, the National Weather Service said. In Carpinteria, nearly 1 inch fell in 15 minutes, the agency said.

Thomas Tighe told CNN affiliate KCAL he was outside his Montecito home and heard “a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was … boulders moving as the mud was rising.”

He saw two cars moving sideways down the middle of the street “in a river of mud.”

Peter Hartmann said the destruction was everywhere.

“There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing,” he told the TV station.

“Power lines were down, high-voltage power lines, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants.”

Before the storm hit, Santa Barbara issued mandatory evacuations for 7,000 people, including in parts of Carpinteria, Montecito and Goleta, which are below areas scorched by wildfires, county spokeswoman Gina DePinto said.

“While some residents cooperated with the evacuations, many did not. Many chose to stay in place,” said Brown, the sheriff.

Sheriff deputies spent Monday conducting door-to-door evacuations for 7,000 people in a mandatory evacuation area. But the area where homes were destroyed, south of Highway 192, was not in a mandatory evacuation zone.

Rescue personnel still have areas to search, Brown said.

“It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, (downed) trees, power lines, wrecked cars — lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Brown said.

Ben Hyatt said a river of mud crashed through a neighbor’s house in Montecito, a community of about 8,000 east of Santa Barbara.

“Apparently, one of their cars ended (up) in their backyard. We have neighbors at (the) top of the street that evacuated to their roof,” Hyatt said.

Hyatt said his Montecito house was “surrounded by mud,” and a washing machine had drifted into his front yard.

“Mud came in an instant, like a dam breaking. (It) surrounded the house, 2 to 3 feet,” he said.