Today, Feb. 10, is the official deadline for countries to submit their updated climate commitments outlining how they will reduce their emissions. At the time of publication, just 12 out of 197 countries had done so.
Experts are not particularly surprised. Despite the official deadline, many have warned for months they expect these nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, to trickle in throughout the year, all in the run-up to the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in November. Progress reports and updates on NDCs are due every five years.
Marcos Neto is helping countries develop ambitious NDCs as the United Nations Development Programme’s assistant secretary-general and director of UNDP's Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. But in addition to helping them increase their ambition, he’s also trying to streamline the process by combining the preparation for NDCs with the preparation for the national biodiversity strategies and action plans, or NBSAPs, which is the biodiversity equivalent. NBSAPs were last due at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2024 in Cali, Colombia. Countries are expected to report on their progress every five years as well.
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
