Syrian authorities have announced plans to join the 2015 United Nations climate agreement in another blow to the United States as the only country that has shunned the deal.

Syria’s delegate at UN climate negotiations in Germany said on Tuesday that the country planned to sign up to the Paris Agreement reached two years ago in the French capital with the aim of curbing the rising global temperatures.

Other delegates attending the meeting of almost 200 nations in Bonn said that Syria representatives told the annual UN conference that Damascus would join the global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite the civil war that has gripped the Arab country.

Other countries welcomed Syria’s plans, saying it showed how much UN efforts to counter global warming had drawn global attention.

“We need everybody on board,” said Ronald Jumeau, of the Seychelles, an islands nation in the Indian Ocean.  

Syria and Nicaragua were the only two nations that had not signed up to the 2015 deal. The US, a major proponent of the agreement at the time, has vowed to pull out of the deal under President Donald Trump. The American president has called the agreement a Chinese hoax, saying it is too protective of emerging powers like China.

Nicaragua has also promised to join the agreement which many say would seriously reduce the use of pollutants like coal as a source of energy. Trump insists that the US cannot curb its coal usage while countries like China can have it for a longer time.

Jumeau said the world was not happy about Trump’s pledges for withdrawal from Paris climate agreement.

“We want the United States in too. We take no pleasure in the United States being out,” he said.

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