Countries Announce Continued Action on 2035 Climate Plans
Nations must build on their NDCs by setting sectoral policies and plans, as well as scaling up investments to realize rapid, deep, equitable, and sustained emissions cuts.
At the recent climate summit hosted by the United Nations Secretary-General in New York and in advance of the U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, leaders from some of the world’s biggest economies announced new 2035 climate plans. These countries demonstrated their continued commitment to climate action and to realizing the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The country targets, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), announced this year—by Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, European Union, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Morrocco, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, small island states, least-developed countries, and others—reflect the continued commitment to greater climate action from the world’s major economies.
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Some of these targets show a clearer trajectory and deepening commitment to meet the countries’ net zero emissions goals by midcentury. Many of them will help to close the global emissions gap. However, more action will be needed domestically to meet or exceed these targets to further close the emissions gap toward the 1.5°C (3.6°F) north star goal set in the Paris Agreement.
“It is hopeful, but not fast enough, nor at the scale needed,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC. “Good direction of travel notwithstanding, this is not enough action to avert the worst impacts climate change will visit upon the people of this planet. Countries need to keep turning these promises into clear action at home.”
Country climate plans show more ambition
The national climate targets announced by many countries set a crucial benchmark for ambition in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reflecting a linear or “straight line” trajectory toward their net-zero ambitions by midcentury. Many of them have also become stronger by covering all economy-wide emissions, providing transparent information on the data underpinning their target, shifting from a cut below a projected growth level to a specific total emissions level in 2035, including quantified targets on clean energy deployment and outlining signals towards a coal phaseout. These climate plans also include, to a greater extent, details on adaptation actions of the country and their needs.
Below, we compare these national emissions reduction targets to the various NDC benchmarks that have been proposed.
Detailed analysis on the current emissions and NDC benchmarks compared to country 2035 NDC announcements
Closing the ambition to put the world on track
These targets will help close the emission gap toward our 1.5°C targets, but they won’t be enough on their own.
According to analysis from the World Resources Institute’s Climate Watch, the announced NDC targets from the 118 countries will close the 2035 emissions gap by 3.42 GtCO2e, compared to the 30.8 GtCO2e needed to put the world on a 1.5°C trajectory and the 19.8 GtCO2e gap for 2°C of warming.
Climate Action Tracker (CAT) assesses that the current set of policies and actions from countries, and the NDCs through 2035 will put the world on a trajectory to 2.6°C, a significant improvement from the 4°C world before the Paris Agreement—but still off-track. CAT analysis shows that if countries, companies, investors, and others implement all their promised actions, the world could reach a temperature increase of 1.9°C. And, new analysis from Climate Analytics finds that it is still possible to bring temperatures to 1.5°C and below, after a period of overshoot, with countries delivering significantly more action in the coming years.
Country ambition should be the floor, not the ceiling of action
Major economies the world over are saying clearly that they will continue efforts to drive down emissions, make their citizens’ lives healthier, and help avoid the devastating human toll and economic damage from climate chaos.
Countries should now build on their NDCs by setting sectoral policies and plans, and scaling up investments to realize rapid, deep, equitable, and sustained emissions cuts.
And “COP30 must raise the roof on real-world action,” as Bapna put it, by ensuring that all parts of society drive even faster transitions to renewable energy, better transportation, nature protection, and other emission reduction actions.
This expert blog was originally published October 3, 2025, and has since been updated with new information and links.
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