"Indonesia Ratifies Paris Climate Deal. Will It Make A Difference?"

"Indonesia is one of the world's largest polluters, but its parliament's has agreed to shift course."

"Indonesia, one of the world’s largest polluters, ratified the Paris climate change agreement Wednesday, two weeks before the global deal is set to take effect.

All 10 political parties in Indonesia’s parliament endorsed the agreement, a key measure before it becomes a law there.

The Paris agreement is already scheduled enter into force on Nov. 4, 30 days after the 28-nation European Union pushed the agreement past the 55 member states, accounting for 55 percent of global emissions threshold earlier this month. Yet, Indonesia’s ratification is significant because it marks the country’s commitment to reduce its pollution footprint, one of the worst in the world. The Southeast Asian country also joins a number of other heavy polluters who have used the agreement to take action themselves, a major point of progress over the Kyoto Protocol and previous environmental summits, US Secretary of State John Kerry said last year."

Ben Rosen reports for the Christian Science Monitor October 19, 2016.