Pledges for the Paris agreement need to revised at latest by 2018

Ministers from all over the world are gathering today at the Rabat INDC Forum, jointly organized by the European Commission and the Moroccan government. The Forum aims to assess the adequacy of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the Paris agreement.

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe has urged the EU to clearly pledge its support for revising all current, inadequate INDCs at latest by 2018.

Analysis of the INDCs shows that the climate targets set by countries as their contributions to the Paris agreement are not ambitious enough to prevent catastrophic impacts of climate change and, if not revised, will take us to an at least 2.7°C warmer world. Therefore, a mechanism for strengthening countries’ commitments has become key to success of the Paris negotiations.

The timeline of this revision will be subject to heated negotiations. The current draft text of the Paris agreement refers to a revision of current INDCs in 2023 and 2024, the draft COP21 Decision text mentions 2018 or 2019, but some countries would prefer not to revise them at all. The EU’s position for the Paris summit supports five year cycle for the revision mechanism, but does specify the start date for the reviews.

“If you have a high temperature, you do not wait years to go to the doctor. Similarly, the climate crisis requires immediate responses.” Wendel Trio, Director of CAN Europe said. “We call on the EU to strongly advocate for the revision of the current, inadequate targets to start just after the Paris summit and to be concluded at latest by 2018. This timeline should guarantee that new, improved targets would be in place already in 2020. Today’s Forum in Morocco is a great opportunity for the European Commission to clearly pledge its support for this review to happen by 2018.”