Countries' most recent climate plans are projected to cut total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by around 12pc over 2019-2035, UN climate body the UNFCCC said today.
Global GHG emissions were, before the Paris climate agreement was adopted, projected to rise between 20pc and 48pc over 2015-2035, UNFCCC data show.
The UNFCCC's projections today are based on 113 climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), submitted, covering a timeframe up to 2035. It released a report, known as an NDC synthesis, which covered climate plans submitted by the end of September. But since then, 22 new NDCs have been submitted, including by the EU — and covering all 27 member states — and by the world's highest-emitting country, China.
If countries implement all elements of their NDCs, global GHG emissions could drop by 14pc over 2019-2035, the UNFCCC projected. Developing countries often split climate plans into unconditional and conditional actions — the latter reliant on external support.
Signatories to the Paris agreement are required to submit NDCs every five years, rising in ambition each time. While countries reach decisions at Cops, the NDCs are the chief route for the implementation of climate action.
"The emissions curve has been bent downwards. Because of what was agreed in halls like this, with governments legislating, and markets responding", UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell told delegates today, as the UN Cop 30 climate summit began in Belem, northern Brazil.
He warned countries that they "must move much, much, faster on both reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience", as "individual national commitments alone are not cutting emissions fast enough".
"We don't need to wait for late NDCs to slowly trickle in, to spot the gap and design the innovations necessary to tackle it… Not one single nation among you can afford this, as climate disasters rip double-digits off GDP", Stiell told delegates.
