Let the Isle of Man join the Paris Agreement too!

The Isle of Man Green Party welcomes the news that Joe Biden’s first action within hours of his inauguration as President was to return the USA to the Paris Agreement. Coming out of the warmest year on record in 2020, Joe Biden got straight to work as President citing the need for America to respond to a “climate in crisis”.

Leader of the Isle of Man Green Party, Andrew Langan-Newton asked “In view of the matter of hours it took Joe Biden to act on climate change, isn’t it time that the Isle of Man as an UNESCO Biosphere nation followed the USA’s lead in joining the Paris Agreement.” 

The previous global agreement on climate change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol was extended to the Isle of Man on 4 April 2006   As a result of the need for a global response to climate change, the Isle of Man Green Party wrote to Chief Minister Howard Quayle in May 2019 asking him to support the global effort to tackle climate change by requesting that the UK’s ratification of the Paris Agreement is extended to the Isle of Man. 

The response of an Isle of Man Government spokesperson at the time was to indicate that: “The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is currently giving careful consideration to the possibility of requesting the UK extend the Paris Agreement to the Isle of Man for ratification.”  To date, the Isle of Man Green Party has not received any update from the Government to indicate that it would join the global pledge encapsulated in the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement was signed on 12 December 2015, a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.  Since 2015, 195 countries have signed the Paris Agreement, including small states such as:

·        Cook Islands (population 17,459) 

·        San Marino (population 33,860) 

·        St. Kitts and Nevis (population 52,834)

To find out more about the Isle of Man Green Party - click here.