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Ten years after the Paris Agreement was adopted, a latest UN report has showed that countries are making progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions but not fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Synthesis Report, released by the UN Climate Change on Tuesday, said the 64 new national climate plans submitted between January 2024 and September 2025 would collectively cut emissions by about 17 per cent below the 2019 levels by 2035. Though this marks "real and increasing progress", the report said that "major acceleration is still needed in terms of delivering faster and deeper emission reductions and ensuring that the benefits of strong climate action reach all countries and peoples". NDCs are climate action plans that every country makes under the Paris Agreement. These plans set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and outline how each country will adapt to the impacts of climate change. Together, these
India has set an example with its robust domestic climate action and stands among the few major economies on track to meet their national plans to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on Friday. In his opening address at the environment ministers' session at the second Voice of Global South Summit, Yadav highlighted India's active role in the fight against climate change, despite its historically minimal contribution to global warming. The minister said India's current per capita greenhouse gas emissions are less than one-third of the global average. He emphasised that developed countries are yet to fulfil their commitments to providing sufficient climate finance to developing nations to address climate-change impacts. Yadav reminded the developed countries of their commitment to mobilising USD 100 billion annually by 2020 for climate finance and doubling their contribution to adaptation finance from the 2019 level by 2025. H
Attempts to pursue "green growth" in high-income countries will not deliver the emission reductions required to meet the climate targets and fairness principles of the Paris Agreement, according to a study. The study, published recently in The Lancet Planetary Health journal, shows that if current trends continue, even the 11 high-income countries that have "decoupled" carbon emissions from gross domestic product (GDP) growth would on average take over 200 years to get their emissions close to zero. These countries would emit more than 27-times their fair share of the "global carbon budget" that must not be exceeded if we are to avert catastrophic warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, as required by the Paris Agreement. The researchers argue that the pursuit of economic growth in high-income countries is at odds with internationally agreed climate targets, and call for transformative "post-growth" climate policy centred around sufficiency, fairness, and wellbeing. The study compared