September has a history of being a pivotal month on the climate calendar and 2016 appears to be no different. China and the US, the world’s largest historical emitters of carbon emissions, rang September in over the weekend, when they announced they would each be ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement. This announcement signaled that September 2016 could resemble the two previous Septembers, which like the weeks ahead, were packed with climate action.

Last year, September saw Pope Francis head to the United States where he delivered a number of messages, including an emphasis on climate change, to the US Congress in Washington, DC and then to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The UN General Assembly in New York last year also saw a number of countries announcing their “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” or INDCs for what would become the Paris Agreement two months later. Last year the UN also moved forward with its long-crafted Sustainable Development Goals. A year before, in 2014, September saw the the largest climate demonstration in history take place in New York when the People’s Climate March put climate at the forefront of the UN agenda ahead of that year’s General Assembly. The recent US and China announcement about ratifying the Paris Agreement this time around, indicates that 2016 may fit the mold of previous Septembers.