Paris (TDI): Nearly all countries missed a UN deadline on Monday to submit new targets for cutting carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.
Just ten of about two hundred countries required under the Paris Agreement to deliver fresh climate plans by February 10 did so on time, according to a UN database tracking the submissions.
Under the climate treaty, each country is supposed to provide a steeper headline figure for reducing heat-trapping emissions by 2035, and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.
Global emissions have been rising but need to nearly halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to levels agreed under the Paris Agreement.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell has described this latest round of national pledges “the most important policy documents of this century.”
Most G20 economies were missing in action with the US, Britain and Brazil — which is hosting this year’s United Nations climate summit — the only exceptions.
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The US pledge is largely symbolic, made before President Donald Trump ordered Washington out of the Paris accord.
There is no penalty for submitting late targets, formally named nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
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They are not legally binding but serve as an accountability step to ensure governments are taking the threat of climate change seriously.
Last week, Stiell said submissions would be requited by September so they could be properly assessed before the UN COP30 climate conference in November.
A spokeswoman for the European Union stated the 27-nation bloc intended to submit its revised targets “well ahead” of the summit in Belem.
