TEHRAN — Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian has voiced concerns over any probable failure in fulfilling Paris climate deal commitments, saying that it would face the country with sanctions even tougher than the nuclear sanctions.

He did not clarify the issue but said that with China and the U.S. recently ratifying the deal, the energy ministry is being beset by worries of not succeeding in meeting its commitments which is to reduce emissions by 4 percent, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Paris agreement at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the parties held in Paris in December 2015.

The deal is an agreement within the UNFCCC dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

The agreement shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 parties to the convention accounting in total for at least an estimated 55 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the depositary.

Currently, there are 191 signatories to the Paris deal. Of these, 61 parties to the convention have also deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval accounting in total for 47.79 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

“The deal is legally binding and in case we fail to reduce the emission we would face punishment,” Chitchian said.

Despite the past when implementing more projects was plausible currently executing projects which are more cost-efficient, causing the least damage to the environment and are sustainable are considered best, he said.

Mentioning his last trip to Denmark the minister noted that the country has managed to produce 45 percent of their energy from renewable sources while Iran has so far succeeded in producing 200 megawatts of energy from renewable sources.

Unfortunately managers are reluctant to change in Iran, he regretted.

“We need an outlook change at managerial level,” he said, stating, “as long as managers receive free of charge fuel to generate electricity we cannot expect them to change their approaches.”

Educating managers would be a great investment for moving forward, Chitchian suggested.

MQ/MG