UK to push for more ambitious NDCs ahead of Cop 27

The UK will continue to push for countries to publish more ambitious national determined contributions (NDCs) before the next Cop 27 UN climate summit, Cop president Alok Sharma said.

The Cop 26 summit agreed that countries should return with enhanced NDCs next year, rather than waiting the usual five years for them to be renewed, as current plans mean that global temperatures will still rise by more than the target of 1.5C by the end of the century from pre-industrial levels.

At the beginning of Cop 26, 153 countries had published enhanced NDCs and others made announcements but have not officially reported them to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"We are going to have to work very hard in partnership with other countries on this," Sharma told the UK parliament's environmental audit committee today. "The way that we delivered Cop 26 was not as a solo effort from the UK. We worked with other like-minded partners around the world and we will continue to do that. We are going to hold countries to account on those particular commitments that have been made," Sharma said.

Sharma remains the Cop president until November 2022, when Egypt assumes the presidency ahead of the Cop 27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh, but will co-ordinate closely with the incoming president. Sharma also met with the German government last week, which is taking over the G7 presidency from the UK. Indonesia will take over the G20 presidency and he expects to work closely with the country's representatives.

Sharma also plans to make bilateral visits to some G20 countries to further discuss their NDCs next year. He said the agreements made at Cop 26 regarding transparency and standardised metrics for reporting emissions will help to hold all parties to account and represents "significant" progress.

The UK government has not yet confirmed the amount of resources that will be dedicated to overseeing the ongoing negotiations. Sharma said the Cop unit needs around 140-150 staff for the next year.

By Eleanor Green