Geneva, Switzerland--Today, the UNFCCC released its initial Nationally Determined Contribution Synthesis Report, tallying the greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments of countries that had submitted their plans as of December 2020. The countries included in the report represent 40% of the parties to the Paris Agreement and account for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The results are alarming: countries’ mitigation targets are nowhere near where they need to be to avert climate catastrophe. If current country commitments are an indication of where the world is heading, we are wildly off track. And the major emitters are the biggest laggards as most have yet to announce their renewed commitments.
Sébastien Duyck, Senior Attorney, Climate and Energy at the Center for International Environmental Law, made the following statement about the report:
“Today’s UNFCCC Synthesis Report shows that the gap between the collective commitment made by governments in Paris and their level of domestic ambition remains abysmal. As reported, the current levels of ambition will achieve only a 1% reduction in emissions below 2010 levels as compared to the 45% reduction the IPCC says is needed to meet the critical goal of keeping global temperature increase below 1.5-degrees. We are now really running out of time if we are to pass on a habitable planet to future generations. Governments must urgently step up to the task to increase short-term and long-term national emission reduction targets in line with science and those that have yet to submit their renewed commitments under the Paris Agreement must do so as a matter of utmost priority.
“Until they do this, governments’ reassurances of support for the Paris Agreement are, frankly, just another form of hot air. Now is the time for major emitters to step up to the plate, both in terms of their Nationally Determined Contributions and their financial commitments to addressing the mounting impacts already faced by communities at the frontlines of this crisis as a result of climate inaction.”
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Published: February 26, 2021
Media Contact: Cate Bonacini, press@ciel.org