By Seth Borenstein, scientific writer AP
Nearly 200 nations have been faced with a deadline on Monday to deposit what the United Nations climate chief calls “among the most important political documents that governments will produce this century” – their plans on the way they reduce the Pied -beetle gas emissions.
Most will not make the deadline. The UN says it’s ok as long as they work on them.
Until now, only a dozen of the 195 nations that have signed the 2015 Paris climate agreement have filed their national plans to reduce emissions by 2035. These nations represent only 16.2% of the global emissions of the global emissions of Carbon dioxide – The main trapping gas of human warmth – and almost all this comes from the United States, where President Donald Trump has already rejected the plan submitted by the administration of President Joe Biden.
Aside from the United States, the only major transmitters to be subject to 2035 targets are Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The Marshall islands, Singapore, Ecuador, Sainte-Lucie, Andorra, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay have filed their plans, but they all produce less than 0.2% of world carbon dioxide.
The UN climate secretary Simon Stiell said that more than 170 countries said to his office that they worked on their national plans, so he was not worried. He underlined the quality in relation to speed.
“Take a little more time to ensure that these plans are first -rate,” said Stiell last week in a political speech in Brazil. “These will be the most complete climatic plans ever developed.”
Champa Patel, political director of the non -profit climate group, was not as indulgent.
“It is worrying that countries do not respect the emergency of the moment,” said Patel. “The world cannot afford inaction.”
These plans – officially called contributions determined at the national level or NDC – are the main mechanism of the historic international agreement. Every five years, nations are supposed to offer new, stronger five -year plans that describe their voluntary plans to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the combustion of coal, petroleum and natural gas.
The latest versions are supposed to be compatible with the objective of the Paris Agreement to limit long-term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. The world is now at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees fahrenheit) since the end of the 1800s and at the rate to warm 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees fahrenheit), according to the UN
Scientists say that the atmosphere of warming leads increasingly extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, hurricanes, heat waves and forest fires that kill people and cause billions of dollars. Each year.
The new targets are also supposed to be for all greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. They should cover the entire economy and not only the energy sector, according to an agreement in 2023.
Climate Action Tracker – A group of scientists and other experts who analyze nations climate plans for domestic emissions – have found that four of the six NDC targets that they have examined so far have obtained an “almost sufficient” For their objective of maintaining warming at 2 degrees Celsius. Switzerland has become insufficient, the group claiming that its plan was more compatible with 3 degrees of warming. The United Kingdom plan has been evaluated compatible for 1.5 degrees of warming.
The British plan aims to reduce emissions by at least 81% by 2035 compared to 1990 emissions, mentioning efforts to eliminate new internal combustion cars – which use only petrol and diesel – By 2030. Brazil in its plan has given a range of programs for programs for programs for programs for programs for programs for programs for programs for emissions Discounts of emission emissions for emissions for programs for cutting cuts for cutting 59% to 67% by 2035 compared to 2005 emissions, speaking strongly of the accent placed on climate justice, mentioning On several occasions the efforts to fight against deforestation.
Most of these countries have been insufficient when they compare what they plan to do with what they really do and what is their “fair share” which plans their resources and history. This included the United States, where one of Trump’s first actions last month was withdrawn from the Paris Agreement.
“We already know at the moment that, whatever the (other countries issued, this is not enough,” the co-founder of Climate Action Tracker, Niklas Hohne, said to the Associated Press on Monday. “They have All need to do more. “
The deadline – established in the Paris Agreement at nine months before the next international climate negotiations this year in Belem, Brazil – is at 11:59 p.m. in Germany, where the United Nations Climate Office is located.
But Stiell said that the real deadline was in September. It is at this point that the United Nations will compensate for all the plans and will determine how many programs will be cut and how much future warming will be prevented if the countries do what they promise.
It’s a big Si.
The European Union and China should be carried out by the middle of the year and India will not subject its objective until other major countries emitting it, said Hohne.
Follow Seth Borenstein on x to @Borenbears
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Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
