The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has stated that Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will reduce emissions by 12 per cent by 2035.
This was disclosed by UNFCCC in its NDC Synthesis Report, released on Monday on the sidelines of COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
Dozens of new national climate plans, known as NDCs, have brought the total to 113 countries, including Nigeria.
These countries represent nearly 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – a significant step forward in the race to keep temperatures under control.
The UNFCCC emphasised that every fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of pounds in climate-related damages.
The UNFCCC, which convenes the annual COPs, suggested that while these pledges could cut emissions by 12 per cent, they are still insufficient to guarantee the 1.5°C target.
Speaking at the opening of COP30, the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said, ”This is the moment to match opportunity with urgency.”
However, Silva warned that ”climate change is not a threat to the future; it is a tragedy of the present.”
Citing Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and a tornado in Paraná, the President declared this ”the COP of truth”, adding that denial and delay are no longer options.
”We are moving in the right direction, but at the wrong speed,”
”Crossing 1.5°C is a risk we cannot take,” the president said.
He noted that such actors “control algorithms, sow hatred, spread fear, and attack institutions, science, and universities. It is time to impose a new defeat on denialists.”
”Without the Paris Agreement, the world will be heading toward catastrophic warming of nearly 5°C by the end of the century,” he added.
Meanwhile, André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 President, presided over the official opening of the summit following a musical performance by members of the Guajajara Indigenous People.
He urged delegates to make this the ”COP of implementation, adaptation, and economic integration of climate policy and above all, the COP that listens to and believes in science.”
COP30 opened on Monday and runs until November 2.
NAN