The UN Cop 30 climate summit presidency has turned its focus on national climate plans — critical to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement — and on how parties should respond to them even though most countries have yet to submit new targets.
Countries have a "collective responsibility" to put together national climate plans which ensure a "safe, prosperous, and sustainable future", the incoming president of the UN Cop 30 climate summit, Andre Correa do Lago, said today.
Countries are required to submit national climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) every five years under the Paris Agreement. NDCs for a 2035 timeframe were due earlier this year, but "around four-fifths" of Paris accord signatories have yet to come forward with new plans, do Lago said.
While Cop outcomes are formed by consensus, the implementation relies on governments putting those agreements into practice. The UN will in October publish an NDC synthesis report, which will assess collective progress on climate change action based on countries and jurisdictions' available plans. Observers widely expect overall progress in NDCs to be insufficient to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
NDCs need to be submitted to the UN by September to be counted in the report. An event on 24 September in New York City, on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly, "will provide a major platform for countries that have yet to do so to unveil new 2035 targets", Lago added.
Countries were clear that Cop 30 must respond to NDCs and to the report, he said, but he also noted "outstanding divergences on the form and scope" of the NDC response. "Those divergences can and must be bridged," he said, announcing consultations in the run-up to the summit to "expand negotiation space and pre-empt deadlocks". Cop 30 is scheduled for 10-21 November in Belem, Brazil, and a leaders' summit is due to take place on 6-7 November. The first in-person consultation will take place with all negotiating groups and parties to the Paris accord on 25 September, during the UN General Assembly, and the second on 15 October in Brasilia, Brazil.
The results of the Bonn meeting in June were "not ideal", do Lago said today. But negotiators made progress in some areas "that can pave the way to successful outcomes" at Cop 30, he added. These include adaptation — adjusting to the effects of climate change where possible — and implementing the Cop 28 outcome, which includes a transition away from fossil fuels.
Do Lago today called on countries "to refrain from introducing potentially contentious new agenda items that could further burden the process or detract from agreed priorities" at Cop 30. And he acknowledged challenges for multilateralism and climate action, noting "geopolitical and economic obstacles" to international co-operation. Countries' concerns include "frustrations" around climate finance, as well as "measures that impact international trade", he said. The latter is likely to refer to carbon border adjustment mechanisms, which the EU is phasing in, and which other jurisdictions have planned.
