Under the Paris agreement, each signatory had to table before the end of the year a revised version of its commitments to fight against global warming.
Le Monde avec AFP
Less than half of the states have submitted their new climate commitments before the deadline of December 31, 2020, according to documents published on the UN website .
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming below + 2 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, each signatory had to file before the end of the year a revised version of its commitments in the fight against climate change, called “Nationally Determined Contribution” (NDC).
But as of January 1 st 2021, around 70 states out of nearly 200 have actually done so, and not necessarily the most greenhouse gas emitters. Thus, according to the latest assessment by the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) group, the 49 states – including the 27 of the European Union – which had already submitted their new contribution in mid-December only represented 23.7% of global gas emissions. greenhouse effect.
About twenty additional States have submitted their documents in the last fifteen days: most represent a tiny share of global emissions, like Monaco, the Maldives or the Marshall Islands, but also include some larger economies, such as South Korea and Argentina.
COP26 postponed due to Covid- 19
While the first series of NDCs placed the planet on a trajectory between + 3 ° C and + 4 ° C, the United Nations Convention on Climate Change must present, on February 21, its assessment new commitments made on December 31.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many government ernements had made it known that they would not meet the deadlines. All eyes are now on the UN climate meeting (COP26), postponed until the fall. Faced with increasing climatic disasters, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, pleaded, in his New Year’s message, for more climate ambition. “Building a coalition for carbon neutrality by 2050 will be at the heart of the ambition of the United Nations in 2021”, he said.
Those fighting against global warming in particular hope that China, the world’s largest issuer that has not filed a new NDC, will uphold President Xi Xinping’s recent pledge to raise Chinese ambitions for 2030 in order to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060.
The United States, which emerged from the Paris agreement by Donald Trump, has obviously not submitted a new contribution either, but Joe Biden, committed to carbon neutrality in 2050, has promised to return and the future US NDC is eagerly awaited.
However, revised commitment does not necessarily mean increased commitment and, as such, stadium, experts point to a lack of ambition, while, according to the UN, emissions should be reduced by 7.6% per year e between 2020 and 2030 to hope to limit warming to + 1.5 ° C. According to the CAT, the new contributions from Brazil, Japan, Russia, New Zealand, Switzerland or Vietnam are no more ambitious.
And even enhanced engagements don’t necessarily measure up. The European Union has raised its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from 40% to “at least 55%”, but “it is still not enough to make the EU compatible with the Paris agreement, “says the CAT.