The UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – has today released a report on countries' Nationally Determined Contributions, showing that international action on the climate emergency falls far short of the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.


The report, titled ‘Nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement – synthesis report by the secretariat’, assessed commitments made by the 193 parties to the Paris Agreement which was agreed upon at COP21.

Sarah Mukherjee MBE, chief executive officer of IEMA - the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, said:

“This report from the UN’s climate body shows that insufficient action is being taken to tackle the climate emergency.

“A key objective for the forthcoming climate conference, COP27 in Egypt, must be for the remaining 169 countries that haven’t submitted their updated Nationally Determined Contributions to do so in order to keep the goal of 1.5C of global heating alive as per the Paris Agreement.

“Ultimately, NDCs are only as powerful as the policies used to implement them. IEMA is calling on policymakers around the world to provide the right policy frameworks to urgently deliver on their commitments.”

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, said:

“We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5C world.

“To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.”

“Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change.”

IEMA has produced a guide for policymakers and journalists on COP27 which is due to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022 and can be read here.

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