US and Syria last hold-outs on climate change

Nicaragua has become the latest country to agree to the Paris climate agreement, leaving the US even more isolated.

“The only two countries in the world refusing to be part of the agreement are the United States and a country it has been trying to overthrow, Syria,” The Washington Post says.

Nicaragua initially refused to sign the accord, saying it did not go far enough in tackling climate change and did not require enough sacrifices by wealthy nations. However, President Daniel Ortega has since signalled he will sign, although he hasn't specified when, The Independent reports.

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In June, Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the deal, claiming it will cost the US trillions of dollars and hinder oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries, thus lowering employment. However, Washington cannot legally do this until 2020.

Syria's civil war is thought to have kept it from signing the deal.

The agreement commits signatories to keeping increases in global temperature to "well below" 2C more than pre-industrial levels and "endeavour to limit" them to 1.5C above, the BBC says.

“Nobody expects [the accord] to collapse” without US support, Newsweek said, but Trump's withdrawal may cause “diplomatic headaches” and could prompt legal action against his administration.

Andrew Light, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and a senior climate adviser at the State Department under Barack Obama, told The Washington Post that Nicaragua’s decision is “further demonstration that the administration is isolated on this issue”.

However, The Guardian has reported that Trump's decision to withdraw from Paris is a symbolic gesture as the US will continue to move away from cutting emissions “regardless of whether it remains part of the global deal”.