Britain ratifies climate pact

Britain yesterday ratified the Paris agreement on climate change, joining more than 100 other countries in a move that campaigners hope will prompt US President-elect Donald Trump to honour the deal.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson signed the Paris Agreement as countries met in Morocco for the latest round of United Nations climate talks, focused on implementing the treaty by the end of the year.

The pact commits countries to limiting global temperature rises to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to keep increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Trump's election victory this month has shocked UN diplomats and notably put a question mark over the fate of the Paris climate deal championed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon during his 10 years at the helm.

Before his election, Trump called climate change a "hoax" perpetrated by China and vowed to "cancel" the hard-fought Paris Agreement concluded last year to limit dangerous global warming.

China and the United States, the two largest emitters, gave a major boost to the accord when they signed on during a summit in September between Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.