Neither China nor India has submitted updated climate plans to be included in an assessment of progress towards the Paris Agreement goals ahead of COP26. Only 110 out of 191 parties to the Paris Agreement have presented new or updated plans by the cut-off date for submissions to be included in the forthcoming UN progress report. This is despite the UN extending the deadline for them. The UN’s Patricia Espinosa has been pleading with governments to contribute their plans…

That the governments of half the world’s people have not complied suggests that either they are not taking the process seriously or they, more likely, don’t want to put in writing that they are failing to decarbonise. India and China are rushing to develop their economies and raise the living standards of hundreds of millions of their citizens from absolute poverty. That can’t be done if they are restrained by net zero commitments…