Leaders, including from major emitters China and the EU, committing today to put forward "ambitious and robust [climate] plans as soon as possible" is a message of hope, but they should align with the Paris Agreement's goals and "speed up a just transition away from fossil fuels," UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned.
China today reiterated that it will submit a new national climate plan which covers "all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases", according to Guterres. "This is extremely important for climate action", Guterres said. China is the world's highest-emitting country, with plans to reach net zero emissions by 2060 — behind the mid-century target that climate science suggests to avoid the worst impacts of a heating world.
Guterres spoke immediately after a meeting that he and Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva convened, in which 17 world leaders participated, including China's president Xi Jinping. Brazil is hosting the UN Cop 30 climate summit in November.
The meeting was arranged so that world leaders could hear from one another that addressing climate change remains a priority, a senior UN official said. "Leaders need reassurance that they're not acting alone", the UN official said. "Dissenters and fossil fuel interests may try to stand in the way," Guterres said, but "no group or government can stop the clean energy revolution".
The EU's and China's NDCs — not yet submitted — will act as useful references, Brazil's official noted. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa also participated in the meeting today.
Participants were limited to heads of state or government and included chairs of the African Union, the Caribbean Community, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Alliance of Small Island States.
The EU still has yet to officially propose a 2040 climate target. It plans to derive its 2035 goal, which will form the basis of its NDC, from this.
Senior officials from Brazil and the UN expect most country submissions by September. Cop 30, which will be held in the Amazonian city of Belem, will mark ten years since the landmark Paris accord was negotiated. It requires countries to review and revise climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — every five years, increasing ambition. NDCs for the period up to 2035 are due to be submitted this year, to UN climate body the UNFCCC.
NDCs are a crucial element in keeping to the temperature boundaries sought by the Paris agreement — limiting a rise in temperature to "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial levels and preferably to 1.5°C. Brazil's official acknowledged that this current round of NDCs may not go far enough to hit those goals, noting that "closing the gap" will be a key issue.
The majority of countries missed a 10 February deadline to submit their NDCs for the period to 2035, while ambition varied among those completed.
By Georgia Gratton
