With COP27 Ahead, Climate Pledges Have Barely Moved Forward Since COP26 Leaders will head to the COP27 summit in Egypt in less than two weeks, proposing new commitments and plan of actions despite the fact that there has been modest momentum towards meeting the world's climate targets since COP26 last year. Only 24 new or updated climate plans have been submitted since then. A new UN report released this morning examines countries' voluntary emissions reduction and climate adaptation pledges, known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs. It found that overall, the world is still falling far short of committing to the emissions cuts needed to meet the Paris targets. That agreement calls for holding warming to "well below" 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C compared to preindustrial levels. The NDCs currently set would set global average temperatures on a course to increase by about 2.5°C, resulting in devastating consequences. Despite calls in Glasgow during COP26 for countries to step up with more stringent emissions plans, only 24 actually did. However, the climate report details how emissions and eventual warming could actually be altered if all the unconditional and conditional pledges are met. The analysis evaluated the voluntary pledges and found that if countries actually implement them, global emissions may peak before 2030. Ideally, COP27 can spur more pledges, as the current trajectory is still insufficient in meeting the 1.5-degree target. "Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change.” https://www.axios.com/2022/10/26/climate-change-pledges-paris-targets-un