U.N. officials have for several years reminded countries of a crucial looming opportunity to improve the planet’s climate trajectory — by submitting new national-level plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The plans, known in climate jargon as “nationally determined contributions,” are the building blocks of the Paris agreement. Countries are supposed to improve and resubmit those plans every five years.
But when the due date arrived Monday for submitting those climate plans, the vast majority of countries — including major emitters such as China, India and the European Union — missed the deadline.
The United States did submit a climate plan, but it came in the final weeks of the Biden administration, raising doubts about its viability.
Carbon Brief, a news outlet that focuses on climate issues, said that countries representing 83 percent of global emissions had missed the deadline.