Few countries submit climate pledges by deadline

A total of 55 countries have submitted their pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to the UN climate convention, the global body said on Monday (1 February).

Although just over a third of the world's 194 states signed up and few poor countries have listed their commitments, all together, those that have given notice of their climate strategy account for 78 percent of emissions, according to the UN.

"Greater ambition is required to meet the scale of the challenge. But I see these pledges as clear signals of willingness to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Countries were originally to have submitted their national pledges to annexes of the Copenhagen Accord by 31 January, but with a minority of states having done so ahead of the deadline, Mr de Boer conceded that the date was "soft."

The submissions, being a show of support for the Copenhagen Accord, suggest the architects of the document still have a great deal of work to do to win over the developing world.

Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jordan, Sierra Leone and Morocco are amongst those that have listed their plans for limiting their emissions, but just three small island states have put their figures on the table: the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Singapore.

The major developed countries all signed up, including the European Union, the United States, Japan and Australia, along with the major emerging economies Brazil, South Africa, India and China, the key drafters of the text.

Although even here, many have submitted the lower end of the range of cuts that had been mooted last year, with New Zealand saying it will not make any cuts without a global agreement being reached.

Environmental groups were not impressed.

"Governments tried to greenwash their failure at the UN Copenhagen climate summit by merely repeating existing targets and dressing them up as action," said Greenpeace in a statement.

"So far, these targets will fail to hold global warming to below 3 degrees C; an increase which threatens to have horrendous consequences."