Signatories to the Paris Agreement are raising their decarbonization commitments

You might almost think that climate is out of fashion. Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, while Andrej Babiš posted a video on his Facebook page titled “The Green Deal is a scam and Europe must abolish it.” But the recently announced commitments of New Zealand and Switzerland, as well as the European Commission’s approach, run directly counter to the US president’s actions and Andrej Babiš’s wishes.

Last week was full of climate-related announcements. They began with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who presented the European Union’s Competitiveness Compass in Davos, setting out measures needed to improve the EU’s global competitiveness in response to recommendations by Mario Draghi, an economist and former Italian prime minister.

“It is a strategy to deliver faster, cleaner and fairer growth by ensuring that all Europeans can benefit from technological change,” von der Leyen said.

The plan addresses innovation, strengthening security and resilience, and decarbonization and competitiveness.

In the last of these areas, the Commission’s aim is to “return to low and stable energy prices”. To this end, the Commission is introducing an Affordable Energy Action Plan, which will apply a competitiveness-based approach to decarbonization through the forthcoming Clean Industrial Deal. Energy-intensive sectors such as steelmaking, metallurgy and the chemical industry will also be a focus.

Countries present their nationally determined contributions

Just as the EU is not scaling back its decarbonization commitments, signatories to the Paris Agreement are also stepping up their efforts to meet emissions targets through their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

NDCs are implemented through national climate action plans adopted by individual countries under the Paris Agreement. They describe how each country plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to help meet the global goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 °C and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

The Paris Agreement requires NDCs to be updated every five years with increasingly ambitious targets, taking each country’s circumstances into account.

Current commitments fall far short of what is needed to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. It is vital that countries adopt more ambitious NDCs to ensure a safer future for people around the world.

The third round of NDC submissions is taking place in 2025. The documents are intended to set out countries’ planned climate action through 2035. These new NDCs will take into account the global stocktake, which assessed worldwide progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. Two countries presented their updated NDCs last week: Switzerland and New Zealand.

New Zealand raises its emissions target

Just a day later, Reuters reported that New Zealand, on the other side of the world, had announced a commitment to cut emissions by 51 to 55% by 2035 compared with 2005.

The target is part of the country’s commitment under the Paris Agreement. New Zealand had originally planned to cut emissions by 50% by 2030, with the ultimate aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

“We have worked hard to set an ambitious yet achievable target that strengthens our commitment to the Paris Agreement and global climate action,” Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said in a statement.

“Meeting this target will mean that we are doing our fair share to reduce the impacts of climate change,” he added.

Watts said New Zealand was on track to meet its commitment to achieve net zero emissions as early as 2044.

However, in December, the Climate Change Commission, a government-funded but independent body, urged New Zealand to aim for greater emissions reductions than it had originally planned. It said many comparable countries had more ambitious targets than New Zealand, and the evidence showed that global action was insufficient to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Switzerland to cut emissions by 65% by 2035

Switzerland is also increasing its emissions-reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement, ESG Today reports. The new decarbonization target will form the basis of Switzerland’s second nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, which the Swiss Federal Council says will be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by 10 February.

The Swiss government announced that it had approved a new climate target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2035 compared with 1990. Switzerland’s current NDC, submitted in 2017, targets a 50% emissions reduction by 2030.

The government said that, as an interim step between the NDC and the 2035 target, it would also aim for an average 59% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the period from 2031 to 2035.

According to the Federal Council, the new targets are consistent with those set out in Switzerland’s Climate Act. Approved in a referendum in 2023, the act enshrines Switzerland’s goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and includes a wide range of measures to help achieve it.

The act includes interim national and sectoral emissions-reduction targets, initiatives to reduce energy consumption, and incentives to help industry, buildings and households move away from fossil-fuel energy. It also requires all businesses to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The government said its new targets for 2031–2035 “should be achieved primarily through domestic measures”. However, an addendum to Switzerland’s long-term climate strategy, published alongside the new targets, states that the country “also retains the option of including emissions reductions achieved abroad (ITMOs) or transfers of surplus emissions reductions from other countries abroad.