G20 Nations Need to Improve Credibility of Climate Pledges – Report

Countries that have committed themselves to cut greenhouse-gas emissions at Paris climate talks need to strengthen the credibility of their pledges, a report by UK-based climate watchdogs said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 180 countries submitted their pledges to curb global warming – the so-called intended nationally determined contributions, or INDCs – during the December 2015 conference in France.

The analysis report, published by Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, studied these pledges and concluded that more needs to be done to improve the transparency and oversight of measures taken by governments.

Most notably, Group of 20 (G20) nations were found to "score lower on the transparency, inclusiveness and effectiveness of their decision-making processes and the level of political constraints to limit policy reversal," the report said.

It urged authorities to strengthen the credibility of their climate pledges by adopting framework legislation for carbon cuts, assigning clear responsibility for implementation and establishing independent consultative bodies.

According to the new report, all G20 nations have a credible basis for delivering on their pledges. EU countries were deemed to have the strongest commitments, with the United States and Russia showing moderate support, and countries like China and Canada still in need of improving the credibility of their INDCs.

After two weeks of intense talks, world powers signed a historic deal last December where they pledged to curb carbon emissions and keep the global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.