During a Buenos Aires conference on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Argentina and other large nations to ratify the Paris Agreement. Argentina’s foreign minister, Susanna Malcorra, replied that the agreement has already been approved by one chamber of Congress, and that she hoped the country would ratify it by the end of this year.

Argentina is Latin America’s third-largest economy, and so could help to tip the scales once the world’s largest emitters — the United States and China — ratify the historic climate accord.

“When we add up the two countries’ greenhouse gas emissions, it comes to almost 40 percent” of global emissions, Ban said of the United States and China.

“So 55 percent may not be difficult to achieve, and I urge Argentina to ratify as soon as possible.”