Countries Announce Climate Targets: “These Targets Are the Floor, Not the Ceiling”
NEW YORK – More than 50 countries announced their climate targets and carbon pollution reduction plans during the United Nations Climate Summit. The announced targets outline steps that countries will take to reduce climate pollution by 2035, as required in the Paris Agreement.
These actions come a day after—and strike a very different tone from—President Trump’s climate denial-laced address at the General Assembly.
Following is reaction from Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“Despite President Trump’s rhetoric against climate action, most of the world’s largest-emitting countries announced they will continue to drive down climate pollution in the coming years. It is hopeful, but not fast enough nor at the scale needed. 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, while delivering even deeper cuts. These targets are the floor, not the ceiling. COP30 must raise the roof on real-world action and find solutions for the needed financial supports the world’s smallest and most vulnerable countries have long signaled are required.
“The world is transitioning to clean energy, and it is a multi-trillion-dollar industry. The countries that emerge as the leaders in this new global economy will win the economic play of a generation. Now is the time to be bold in both actions and words.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd.