Oh that Paris

In the wake of the COP 29 debacle in Baku, Climate Home News complains, apparently surprised, that “Just 10 days to go until the UN deadline for countries to submit stronger climate action plans.

In a last-ditch attempt to keep global warming somewhere close to 1.5C – and the signs don’t look good.

Only seven such NDCs have been submitted so far. Will next week see a flurry?” No. And if it does, it will just be a flurry of politically-motivated empty promises. Another such flurry. So much, in fact, that we’d say such a storm was caused by climate even if normally snow is just weather.

The CHN lament includes that:

“One NDC curiously absent from the handful published so far is that of COP29 host Azerbaijan. It had promised to submit a 1.5C-aligned plan by the end of last year, as part of the ‘Troika’ of COP host countries.

It’s the only one still MIA, but we’ve heard it’s nearing the taxi-way after the logistical demands of organising a UN climate summit slowed things down.”

Oh yeah. The canavar ate their homework. (Showing off here our anti-fluent Azerbaijani, in which “canavar” means wolf. Trust us. We went to the museum.) Exactly how naïve are these people? They even grouse that:

“The latest is from New Zealand, and it didn’t go down well with climate campaigners, who branded it ‘pathetic’. The 2035 target, cooked up by a right-wing government, aims to cut net emissions by 51-55% from gross 2005 levels. That compares with an existing 2030 goal of a 50% cut – hardly a heavy lift.”

Boo right-wing governments. Swine. But Paris was a while ago now and almost literally nobody’s getting it done, or paying much of a political price for their hypocrisy. What made you think it would change?

Reuters “Sustainable Switch” whistled past the graveyard of empty promises, emailing:

“Switzerland, Britain and New Zealand submitted their raised climate targets this week to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under the Paris Agreement, just after the United States said it will withdraw from the landmark accord on Jan. 27, 2026. The Swiss have approved new climate targets, proposing a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 of at least 65% compared to 1990 levels.

The country came under fire last year when a top European court ruled it was not doing enough to tackle climate change. Britain too submitted further details of its plan to cut carbon emissions to the United Nations climate body.

Its climate targets were raised at last year’s UN COP29 climate summit, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035, without explaining exactly how the goals would be met. New Zealand said that it would make a commitment that by 2035 the country would have reduced emissions by 51% to 55% compared to 2005 levels. Its initial commitment had been to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and is part of a pledge to be net zero by 2050.”

And nobody can doubt the sincerity or capacity of any of these governments to deliver on expedient promises including on climate. Unless of course they’ve been paying attention.