Current NDCs submission status under the Paris Agreement

Under the Paris Agreement, Parties must  submit  Nationally  Determined  Contributions  (NDCs)  to  the UNFCCC and  to introduce policies  aiming the achievement of their stated objectives. The first round of  NDCs,  submitted  by  191 countries,  covers  more  than  90%  of  global  energy‐related  and  industrial  process  CO2  emissions.

As  of  23  April  2021,  80 countries  have  submitted  new  or  updated  NDCs  to  the  UNFCCC,  covering  just  over  40%  of  global  CO2  emissions. 

Still, just a few percent of the global net zero emission targets currently are supported by law (see figure below).

Source: IEA, 2021

Have countries done enough to meet their climate action promises made five years ago in Paris?

 Unfortunately, according to BloombergNEF, the world's biggest #GHG emitters still are far behind in terms of implementing policies and actions to meet their #ParisAgreement commitments...

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COP25 in Madrid: any achievements?

COP25 was closed with feeling of big disappointment among majority of participants. Member states failed to come to agreements regarding critically important issues, including set up  of  global carbon trading system and a system to accumulate and transfer new finance to countries facing  devastating impacts of climate change.
According to Paris Agreement, countries need to revisit their climate pledges by 2020. However, China and Brazil opposed placing any obligation on countries to submit enhanced pledges next year, arguing it should be each country’s own decision. Small island countries supported by EU countries insisted on inclusion of a clear call for enhanced ambition in 2020.

What to expect from COP25?

The key issues to be discussed and resolved at COP25 include:
- Strengthening Climate Ambition, Long-Term Decarbonization and Resilience.
At COP25, countries must not only reiterate but strengthen their commitments regarding  enhanced NDCs by 2020 and launch national inclusive and multi-stakeholder enhancement processes.
- The rules, modalities, procedures, and guidance developed under Article 6 must be in line with the highest standard of environmental integrity.
Recommendations should be prepared on far more ambitious NDCs based on the findings of the three recent IPCC special reports on 1.5°C, land, and oceans and cryosphere. Rich countries must use the Pre-2020 

World Energy Outlook 2019 suggests a path fully aligned with the Paris Agreement goal

WEO 2019, the International Energy Agency’s flagship publication, suggests a pathway that enables the world to meet climate, energy access and air quality goals while maintaining a strong focus on the reliability and affordability of energy for a growing global population.
The path the world is on right now is presented by the Current Policies Scenario, which provides a baseline vision of how global energy systems would evolve if governments make no changes to their existing policies.

US starts formal withdrawal from Paris climate accord

The Trump administration announced that it will begin formally withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, the first step in a year-long process to leave the landmark agreement to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases.

Critics of the withdrawal say that the US leaving an agreement it helped negotiate will harm the country's standing internationally.

A poll conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication earlier this year showed that about 7 in 10 Americans think global warming is happening, and at least 6 in 10 are "somewhat worried" about it.

Source: CNN

Outcomes of COP24 in Katowice, December 2018

The Katowice climate package, adopted in December 2018 during COP24 in Katowice, Poland, is a set of rules regarding how the Parties will measure the carbon emissions and report on their emissions-cutting efforts. This ‘rulebook’ can be called as the detailed “operating manual” of 2015 Paris Agreement, and it includes:

•    the information about domestic mitigation and other climate goals and activities that governments will provide in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs);
•    the rules for the functioning of the Transparency Framework, which will show to the world what countries are doing about climate change;
•    how to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology;
•    how to provide advance information on financial support to developing countries and the process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards

The implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement respect the different capabilities and socio-economic realities of each country while providing the foundation for ever-increasing ambition with respect to climate action. They establish an effective international system for promoting and tracking progress while empowering countries to build national systems for implementing the Agreement

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Source: Katowice climate package. UNFCCC

Renewable energy needs to be scaled up at least six times faster

In recently published report Global Energy Transformation: A Roadmap to 2050, IRENA states that renewable energy needs to be scaled up at least six times faster for the world to meet the decarbonisation and climate mitigation goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
While different paths can mitigate climate change, renewables and energy efficiency provide the optimal pathway to deliver most of the emission cuts needed at the necessary speed.