Almost All Nations Miss UN Deadline for New Climate Targets

AFP/APP

Paris: Nearly all nations missed a UN deadline Monday to submit new targets for slashing carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.

Just 10 of nearly 200 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 accord, each country is supposed to provide a steeper headline figure for cutting heat-trapping emissions by 2035 and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.

Global emissions have been rising but need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to safer levels agreed under the Paris deal.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell has called this latest round of national pledges “the most important policy documents of this century.”

Yet, just a handful of major polluters handed in upgraded targets on time, with China, India, and the European Union the biggest names on a lengthy absentee list.

Most G20 economies were missing in action, with the United States, Britain, and Brazil—the host of this year’s UN climate summit—being the only exceptions.

The US pledge is largely symbolic, made before President Donald Trump ordered Washington out of the Paris deal.