The United Nations expects the number of countries that will sign the Paris climate change agreement at an April 22 ceremony in New York to exceed the record for the number signing up to an international accord on the day it opens, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.
The largest number to date was 119 countries that signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on Dec. 10, 1982, according to Selwin Hart, director of the U.N. secretary-general's climate change support team.
The number of countries inking the new global deal to tackle climate change, agreed upon by around 195 countries in December, is likely to exceed that record, Hart told reporters.