Developed nations not to revise NDCs

NEW DELHI: Most developed nations and some developing countries, numbering 14, responsible for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions, have declined to revise their nationally determined contribution (NDCs) to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement target of keeping global mean temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

Days ahead of the crucial UN Climate Action Summit in New York, a report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), titled The Heat is On: Taking Stock of Global Climate Action, said that most developing nations, including the most vulnerable small island nations, have said they will enhance their ambition to meet the Paris target.

The report underlines that developed countries are not rising to the challenge and are set to risk breaching the 2 degree global warming target, a dangerous threshold, according to the scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

At least 112 nations accounting for 53% of the global emissions have expressed the intention to update their NDCs. “However, this includes many of the developing countries that are the most vulnerable to, but least responsible for, climate change,” said a UNDP statement on Wednesday. One hundred and eighty four out of 197 parties to the Paris Agreement have submitted their first set of NDCs.