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Nations must step up climate commitments in order to align with Paris Agreement

Published March 10, 2021

Nations must step up climate commitments in order to align with Paris Agreement

The world must set more ambitious plans to tackle the climate emergency if we are to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement, according to a report by the UNFCCC.

At the moment, governments are falling short by a long shot on what’s needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees. The UNFCCC calls for major emitters to come through with much more ambitious targets for 2030—and this in the next few months prior to the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow in November.

The report, which was put together to measure the progress of Nationally Determined Contributions up to 31 December 2020, shows that the current combined impact equates to a less than 1% reduction by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. The goal is to cut emissions by 45% by that time.

The UK and the EU are the only 2 of the 18 largest emitters that updated their NDCs in 2020, both committing to a strong increase in their GHG reduction targets. Others have either not presented any NDCs or have made less ambitious commitments.

“There’s a long way still to go,” said Jeremy Nicholson, Corporate Affairs Officer at Alfa Energy Group. “The UK is in the vanguard. We’re delivering a lot more and others will have to step up to the plate.”

Due to COVID-19, many nations faced challenges completing their NDC submissions. While 75 of the 197 Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have made new or updated NDCs, which represent around 30% of GHG emissions, major emitters who have not yet done so are called on by the Committee to make their submissions as soon as possible. A second report, which is set to include more high-emitting countries, will be released prior to COP26.





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