Quarter of Countries Miss UN Climate Plan Deadline 18 Months On
A UN report reveals 45 countries have failed to submit new national climate plans, breaching Paris Agreement rules, 18 months after the deadline.
About a quarter of the countries signed up to the Paris Agreement are still breaching its rules by failing to submit a new national climate plan, 18 months after the deadline. The Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee's (PAICC) newly-published report highlights that 45 nations had not submitted a plan known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC), despite the February 2025 deadline. ## Non-compliance and its implications The PAICC report also notes that 12 countries ignored the committee's repeated attempts to find out why they had not yet produced a climate plan. These countries will be invited to the committee's next meeting, from September 1-4, to identify the challenges and constraints they face. Members of the committee are divided on whether to name those countries publicly and will debate the question again in September. The PAICC does not have any power to punish governments, as building these powers into the Paris Agreement was thought to be too controversial. ## Countries without updated NDCs Countries without an updated NDC include Egypt, Vietnam, Argentina, and the Philippines, all of which rank among the world's 40 largest greenhouse gas emitters. The rest of the countries are smaller, poorer nations, with many in Africa or the Caribbean. Some nations have argued that they cannot put together an NDC due to exceptional circumstances. For example, Sudan has cited its civil war as the reason for the suspension of its NDC preparation. ## Progress and concerns Since the last PAICC meeting in March, ten countries have published NDCs, including India, Algeria, Cameroon, and Guyana. However, the committee expressed concern that the UN's NDC registry continued to label the climate plans of countries that are no longer party to the Paris Agreement as "active". The US submission has since been archived. The PAICC will continue to monitor the progress of countries in submitting their NDCs and address the challenges faced by non-compliant nations.
