India plans to submit updated NDCs before COP30 in Brazil this November.
Major emitters including China and EU have delayed submitting updated climate targets.
Mixed signals from emitters as global climate urgency intensifies before UN summit.
India is expected to release its updated climate action plan, also known as, Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs, just ahead of the COP30 climate meeting in Brazil in November, reported The Indian Express.
The existing NDCs would lay out climate targets for the 2030 time-frame along with set of actions the country is taking to tackle climate change. Under the Paris Agreement, every country is mandated to finalise and submit these NDCs every five years, with every successive NDC representing a progression over the existing one. The NDCs were first submitted around the time the Paris Agreement was finalised in 2015. The NDCs were updated next around the year 2020 and the countries are now supposed to submit the third edition of their NDCs by the end of this year.
Considering the world battered by the impact of extreme weather events including heavy flooding, drought, longer heatwaves in the past summer, a senior UN official told reporters ahead of the UN Climate Summit in New York, “the stakes could not be higher”, reported DW.
Other big emitters including China, the European Union and India are among those yet to submit their national targets. Some nations that have put forward domestic targets, like Australia and Japan, have been criticised for not showing stronger ambition and doing their fair share.
Many countries, including China, are expected to come forward with proposals. Over 100 nations have registered to speak as part of this week’s UN Climate Summit, taking place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
Mixed Signals from Major Emitters
A few days prior to the climate summit, on September 18, the EU submitted a statement of intent. According to DW, the document indicated the bloc's intention to present a climate target prior to the November conference that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 66.25% and 72.5% by 2035 when compared to 1990 levels.
Stientje van Veldhoven, regional director for Europe at the World Resources Institute told DW that while the statement showed "scope for progress", it risked sending a confusing message, eroding investor confidence and undermining jobs, energy security and competitiveness.
In contrast, while major emitters are still working towards finalising their NDCs, Reuters reported that US President Donald Trump has dismissed the very existence of climate change as ‘the greatest con job’ in the world during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23.
