Most nations miss deadline for plans to fight climate change. UN says take your time to do it right

Nearly 200 nations faced a Monday (yesterday, Macau time) deadline to file what the United Nations’ climate chief calls “among the most important policy documents governments will produce this century” — their plans on how they will cut emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Most won’t make the deadline. The U.N. says that’s OK as long as they are working on them.

So far only a dozen of the 195 nations that signed the 2015 Paris climate agreement have filed their national plans for cutting emissions by 2035. Those nations account for only 16.2% of the world›s carbon dioxide emissions — the chief human-caused heat-trapping gas — and almost all of that is from the United States, where President Donald Trump has already discarded the plan submitted by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Aside from the U.S., the only major emitters to submit 2035 targets are Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The Marshall Islands, Singapore, Ecuador, Saint Lucia, Andorra, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay have filed their plans, but they all produce less than 0.2% of the world’s carbon dioxide.