The United Nations climate secretariat has confirmed that countries accounting for almost 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions have now submitted official climate action plans.
The UN revealed it was seeing official national climate action plans submitted at a faster rate than had been widely expected ahead of this year’s climate summit in Paris.
This has fuelled hopes progress towards an international agreement can be made at this week’s latest round of talks in the German city of Bonn.
The UNFCCC climate secretariat update revealed that climate action plans, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), had been submitted by more than 50 countries, which together accounted for almost 70 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“The response so far has underlined the strong will and intent of nations to reach an effective Paris agreement,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in a statement.
“On their own, the INDCs received before Paris are not going to keep us below a two degrees Celsius rise this century.
“But they underline a sharp and positive departure from business as usual and will form the essential foundation to reach that ultimate goal if governments agree to clearly ramp up ambition over time.”
The UN said over 95 per cent of developed counties had already submitted their plans, “in line with their responsibility to lead the cuts in emissions”.
The United States and the European Union have both committed to steep emissions reductions by the late 2020s, while China has also said it will aim to ensure its emissions peak by the end of the next decade.
Leading economies such as Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, and Canada, have also submitted detailed plans, while INDCs are expected from Brazil and Indonesia in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, a number of developing nations and islands states, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Marshall Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Djibouti, have submitted plans featuring commitments to deploy clean technologies and mobilise investment in climate adaptation.
The UNFCCC said it would publish a full report of submitted INDCs on November 1.
The update comes as diplomats from around the world prepare to gather in Bonn this week to discuss the latest version of the negotiating text being prepared for the Paris Summit at the end of the year.
Last month the Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) presented a new version of the text.
They sought to streamline the complex negotiations into three ‘baskets’: elements relevant to the new legal agreement; elements relevant to supporting decisions that will accompany the agreement; and elements where governments need still to decide on the optimal placement.
Meanwhile, scientists have also repeatedly warned the scale of emission reductions being pledged by individual nations will not be sufficient to keep global temperatures below the internationally agreed limit of a two degrees Celsius rise.
