Jan 11, 2021
BARCELONA – Less than half of countries that committed to strengthening their climate action targets in 2020 did so by the end of last year, as the pandemic slowed climate diplomacy and efforts to update national plans, a developing-nations group said on Friday.
A tracker run by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) showed 73 nations submitted revised climate plans to the United Nations, meeting a 2020 deadline under the Paris Agreement to tackle global warming.
That was about 45% of the 160 nations that had earlier said they intended to submit plans — called nationally determined contributions — last year.
Of those that filed updated plans, 69 made more ambitious climate commitments, either to step up efforts to cut planet-heating emissions, adapt to more extreme weather and rising seas, or both.