European Union Submits Its Newclimate Action Plan To The UN Framework Convention On Climate Change
The EU’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) comes well in advance of a new universal climate agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference in Paris in December, this year.The new agreement will come into effect in 2020 and will pave the way to keep a global temperature rise this century under 2 degrees C.Governments have agreed to submit their INDCs in advance of Paris with manydeveloped and bigger developing countries expected to do so in the first quarter of this year.
In February, in Geneva, countries under the UNFCCC also finalized the negotiating text for the Paris agreement. The next round of formal negotiations will take place at UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany, in June.
INDCs have been chosen as the vehicle for national contributions to the international Paris agreement. They include, for example, details of emission reductions the country will undertake and can include other action plans covering areas such as adaptation to climate change.
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC has encouraged countries to come forward with their INDCs as soon as they are able, underlining their commitment and support towards a successful outcome in Paris. “Momentum towards Paris is building everywhere. I look forward to many more INDCs being submitted over the coming weeks and months,” she said.
Countries have agreed that there will be no back-tracking in their contributions. This means that the level of ambition to reduce emissionswill increase over time.
The negotiating text from Geneva also signals the ambition among many governments for a long-term goal to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the century.