Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Brazil, August 20 - The Brazilian presidency of COP30 warned on Tuesday that nearly 80 percent of the countries that signed the Paris Agreement have yet to update their greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments, less than three months before the start of the UN Climate Conference, which will take place next November in Belém.
André Corrêa do Lago, the designated president of COP30, stated in a letter addressed to the international community that the lack of new targets, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), poses a risk to the progress of the global climate agenda.
“The Parties understand how important it is for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to receive the NDCs in time to be reflected in the synthesis report. No action demonstrates a stronger commitment to multilateralism and the climate regime than the NDCs that countries present as their national determination to contribute to the Paris Agreement,” he noted.
According to Corrêa do Lago, to date, about four-fifths of the signatory countries have not submitted new climate commitments for 2035. The Paris Agreement (2015) aims to prevent the worst effects of global warming and to limit the average temperature increase of the planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that to keep warming within that limit by 2035, global emissions will need to be reduced by half.
The COP30 presidency hopes that most countries that have not yet updated their targets will do so by September 24, when UN Secretary-General António Guterres will host a climate action event alongside the 80th session of the General Assembly in New York.
Additionally, the COP30 presidency announced on Tuesday the early commencement of consultations on the main negotiation topics for the conference, a process that typically takes place during the second week of the event.
The so-called Presidential Consultations will begin virtually in the coming weeks and will continue with two in-person meetings: the first on September 25 in New York, and the second on October 15 in Brasília, following the preparatory ministerial meeting for COP30.
According to Corrêa do Lago, these consultations will focus on five fundamental areas: mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation, just transition, and the Global Stock Take (GST), a mechanism that periodically assesses the progress of climate commitments. (Text and Photo: Cubadebate)
