President Hassan Rouhani’s administration approved Iran’s long-awaited climate change action plan on Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting.
The plan, which aims to curb Iran’s greenhouse gas emissions, specifically mentions that Iran can only meet its obligations if the sanctions are lifted, the official presidential website president.ir reported.
Details of the plan, also known as the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, were not available.
Last month, Iran announced that it planned to submit its final INDC to the United Nations by mid-November, having missed the informal deadline of October 1 along with a handful of other countries.
While officials remain tight-lipped about the details of the plan, Iran’s lead climate negotiator, Majid Shafipour, told Bloomberg last month that Tehran could as much as quadruple its efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions if the sanctions are ended.
Iran’s annual carbon emission exceeds 712 million tons, making it the world’s 11th largest emitter of the gas.
So far, 157 countries have submitted their INDCs to the UN, including the top 10 emitters, making Iran the largest carbon dioxide producer that has yet to submit its climate action plan.
Earlier this month, the UN said the submitted plans were not enough to limit a rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold seen by scientists as avoiding the most devastating effects of climate change.
The emission pledges will be the building blocks for a UN deal expected at a meeting of world leaders in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 to fight global warming in the years from 2020.
