SINGAPORE – With just two weeks left until the world meets in Brazil on Nov 10 for UN climate summit COP30, less than a third of countries party to the Paris Agreement have submitted their national targets for curbing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
This comes despite scientists declaring in October that record temperatures fuelled by such emissions have pushed the earth’s ecosystems to its
first catastrophic crisis
, as heat-sensitive coral reefs enter widespread decline.
Under the Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries that signed the world’s climate pact were asked by the UN to submit their climate targets for 2035 by February. Singapore did so on time, but as at Oct 24, only 63 out of the 196 parties had done so.
Ahead of COP30, which will take place over two weeks in the Amazonian city of Belem, The Straits Times unpacks the implications of the absent plans, and talks to experts on the significance of Singapore’s timely submission.
The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels. Under the treaty, countries are meant to submit increasingly ambitious national targets – dubbed nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – to curb their greenhouse gas emissions every five years.
However, only fewer than 20 countries, including Singapore, met the initial February deadline to finalise their targets for 2035. More than 40 countries have since updated their NDCs, including Chile, Tonga and Angola.
Among those that missed the extended deadline of Sept 30 are the European Union’s 27 member states, as well as India, the third-largest contributor to emissions.
Meanwhile, the world’s top emitter China announced its targets in September, but has yet to formally finalise them.
The current climate of political uncertainty and economic pressures is the key driver behind these delays, analysts told ST.
Dr David Broadstock, a partner at economic consultancy The Lantau Group, said there has been a roll-back in public commitment to climate change within the US following the 2024 re-election of President Donald Trump, with spillover effects to other nations.
The US was among the earliest to submit its targets, having done so during the tenure of its previous president Joe Biden. But under the current administration, the world’s second-largest emitter will
withdraw from the Paris Agreement
in January 2026, joining Iran, Libya and Yemen as countries outside the deal.
Mr Trump has been dismissive of the Paris Agreement and the perceived benefits of renewable energy, and is highly supportive of expanding or sustaining the use of oil and gas, Dr Broadstock noted.
“This establishes a powerful undertone and rhetoric driven by one of the world’s major economic superpowers,” he said. “The old mantra that ‘it’s all about the dollars and cents’ has taken centre stage again, at the expense of environmentally and socially responsible decisions.”
These headwinds are buffeted by a global trade war initiated by the US, which has created economic and policy uncertainty that has stretched across much of the early half of 2025, he added.
