MOSCOW

Russia Monday officially joined the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ratified Russia's participation in the treaty, after signing an act "to accept the Paris agreement from 12 December 2015, signed on behalf of the Russian Federation in New York city on 22 April 2016", said the statement, published on the government website.

According to the notice, Russia recognized its obligations under the Paris climate accord by signing the document.

Paris agreement is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2015.

Under the Paris deal, industrialized nations pledged financial support for developing countries for climate protection measures, technology transfer, and capacity-building programs.

The agreement was signed by 196 countries and intends to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing carbon emissions and limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius.

On Aug. 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the country's government made a decision to join the agreement and assumed very serious obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 75% of the 1990 levels in the next few years and to attain 70% levels by 2030. These serious obligations will require a substantial reconstruction of the entire Russian economy.