East African Community’s member states will be among over 130 countries to sign the Paris Climate Change Agreement in New York, US, next week, paving the way for the global pact to enter into force.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will host the signing ceremony on April 22 when it opens for signature. The event is set to break the record for the highest number of countries signing an international treaty. The 1994 Law of the Sea Treaty set the record with 119 countries signing it on its first day of signature.

“Paris was historic,” Ban said in a statement. “But it’s only the beginning. We must urgently accelerate our efforts to tackle climate change.”

The Paris agreement sets a goal of limiting global warming by capping temperature rise to 2^oC while aiming at a target of 1.5^oC. Part of the effort includes cutting back or eliminating use of coal, oil and gas for energy and adopting cleaner sources, such as solar, wind and nuclear power.

A country’s signature on the agreement initiates the domestic process, which may be rapid or lengthy depending on its practices, that culminates in depositing its instruments of ratification with the UN. It is only once such an instrument is deposited that a country can be said to have ratified the Paris Agreement.

A number of countries have already indicated that they will deposit their instruments of ratification immediately after signing the agreement, the UN said.

All 195 nations that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change were invited to sign the agreement that will take effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification or acceptance.