Although Nicaragua originally opposed signing the Paris Agreement on climate change, President Daniel Ortega announced September 18 that his country will join the accord. Nearly 200 countries signed the agreement in December 2015 to prevent a global temperature rise beyond 2 degrees Celsius. Now Nicaragua’s adherence means that the U.S. and Syria are the only two countries not participating in the global accord.

According to Paul Oquist, a negotiator for Nicaragua during Paris, the country felt that the accord was not strong enough to keep warming below catastrophic tipping points – and that poorer, developing nations were being held to unfair standards. However, now Mr. Ortega believes the country should join the agreement to show solidarity with other nations in the fight against global climate change.