Yemisi Izuora
United Nations push to curb greenhouse gas emissions is not producing the desired outcome as scores of countries globally known to be key polluters apparently ignored calls to submit climate action plan.
Many of the world’s biggest polluter nations reportedly missed a U.N. deadline to set new climate targets as efforts to curb global warming come under pressure following U.S. President Donald Trump’s election.
The nearly 200 countries signed up to the Paris Agreement faced a Monday deadline to submit new national climate plans to the U.N., setting out how they plan to cut emissions by 2035.
As of Monday morning, many of the world’s biggest polluters including China, India and the European Union had not done so.
“The public is entitled to expect a strong reaction from their governments to the fact that global warming has now reached 1.5 degrees Celsius for an entire year, but we have seen virtually nothing of real substance,” said Bill Hare, CEO of science and policy institute Climate Analytics.
The 2015 Paris climate accord commits nations to try to avoid global warming exceeding 1.5 C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Action to date has fallen far short of the deep emissions cuts that would achieve this. Last year was the first to breach 1.5 C of warming.
Large economies that have announced new climate plans include the U.S., Britain, Brazil, Japan, and Canada, although Trump is expected to scrap the U.S.’s Biden-era contribution.
Trump last month ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and paused some federal clean energy spending.
U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said last week most countries have indicated they will still produce their plans this year.
“Countries are taking this extremely seriously, which isn’t surprising given these plans will be key to how much of the 2 trillion boom governments can secure,” Stiell said, citing the $2 trillion invested globally in clean energy and infrastructure last year.
“So taking a bit more time to ensure these plans are first-rate makes sense,” he added.
But the missed deadline adds to concerns that climate action has fallen down government agendas, with some officials signalling that the U.S. U-turn on climate policy is disrupting other nations’ efforts.
EU climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra told Reuters last month the bloc’s policymaking cycle did not line up with the U.N. deadline, but that Brussels would have its plan ready for the COP30 U.N. climate summit in November.
India has not yet finished the studies needed to design its climate plan, a government official told Reuters.
China will publish its climate plan “in due course”, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
A spokesperson for Indonesia’s Environment Ministry said the ministry was awaiting instructions from the President’s office on submitting its climate target.
The governments of Iran, Russia and South Africa did not respond to requests for comment.