Greenhouse Gas Pledges by Parties to the
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change

Jane A. Leggett
Specialist in Energy and Environmental Policy
July 20, 2015
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R44092


United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Introduction
International negotiations are underway toward an agreement, due in December 2015, under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)1 regarding commitments
and actions to address human-related, global climate change from 2020 on. This report briefly
summarizes the existing commitments and pledges of selected national and regional governments
to limit their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as contributions to the global effort. The
negotiations cover additional topics, including adaptation to the impacts of climate change and
financing to assist the efforts of low-income countries. However, parties to the UNFCCC have not
agreed that intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) of parties must or should
include those other topics. Consequently, this report focuses only on the GHG mitigation pledges.
More extensive information on the climate change negotiations is available in several additional
CRS reports.2
Following background on the UNFCCC, this report describes the role of INDCs in the current
negotiations. It then summarizes selected parties’ existing GHG mitigation commitments and
pledges in a table that covers both the period to 2020 and from 2020 on. Information on
additional parties’ INDCs is available through the website of the UNFCCC.3
Background on the UNFCCC
All Parties Have Common but Differentiated Obligations Aimed at
Achieving the UNFCCC’s Objective

Nearly all national governments around the world, including the United States,4 agreed in 1992 to
the UNFCCC as the principal framework for addressing climate change internationally. It
provided the structure for collaboration among parties and for evolution of efforts toward the
treaty’s objective of “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level
that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic5 interference with the Earth’s climate system”
(UNFCCC Article 2). (See box below.)

1 Sen. Treaty Doc. 102-38; United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, p. 107; and depositary notifications C.N.148.1993.
Currently, there are 196 parties to the UNFCCC.
2 See, among others, CRS Report R40001, A U.S.-Centric Chronology of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change
, by Jane A. Leggett; CRS Report IF10239, President Obama Pledges Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Targets as Contribution to 2015 Global Climate Change Deal
, by Jane A. Leggett; and CRS Report R41889,
International Climate Change Financing: The Green Climate Fund (GCF), by Richard K. Lattanzio.
3 UNFCCC, “INDCs as Communicated by Parties,” http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/
submissions.aspx.
4 President George H. W. Bush referred the treaty to the U.S. Senate, which gave its advice and consent, and the United
States deposited its ratification of the treaty on October 15, 1992.
5 Human-induced.
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Stabilizing Carbon Dioxide Concentrations Implies Zero Net Emissions
Parties’ INDCs are proffered in the context of negotiations over how actions in 2020 and beyond may contribute to
achieving the objective of the UNFCCC, to stabilize GHG concentrations. These are premised on the relationships
between GHG emissions, their atmospheric concentrations, and ultimately, global climate change.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the major human-related GHG in the atmosphere,6 even though it constitutes only about
0.04% of the atmosphere. Because CO2 concentrations were roughly stable for thousands of years before the
industrial revolution, scientists conclude that natural emissions and natural removals were approximately equal. The
human-related addition to the previously balanced “carbon flux” is currently less than 4% annual y. However, the
incremental accumulation led to important changes over centuries.
In 1992, when the UNFCCC was signed, CO2 concentrations had risen from preindustrial levels by almost 30% (i.e.,
from about 280 parts per million [ppm] to about 356 ppm).7 At some point during 2015 or 2016, annual average CO2
concentrations could reach over 400 ppm.8 The National Academy of Sciences has stated, “The present level of
atmospheric CO2 concentration is almost certainly unprecedented in the past million years, during which time
modern humans evolved and societies developed. The atmospheric CO2 concentration was however higher in Earth’s
more distant past (many millions of years ago), at which time paleoclimatic and geological data indicate that
temperatures and sea levels were also higher than they are today.”9
Various scenarios project that CO2 concentrations could rise to 700-900 ppm in this century if human-related
burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other land-use change were to continue unabated.10 Such levels would be as
much as three times the pre-industrial concentrations.
Meeting the objective of the UNFCCC—stabilizing GHG concentrations—at any level requires that emissions fall to
net zero. That is, the human increment of emissions could not exceed extra removals of the GHG from the
atmosphere. Removals of carbon dioxide occur by natural processes, principally growing vegetation and
phytoplankton in the oceans. These removal processes are likely to increase somewhat with higher CO2
concentrations (“carbon fertilization”) but are limited by nutrient availability and other factors. Removals could be
enhanced by human actions.
To stabilize CO2 emissions, human-related net emissions would need to decline to zero. Some refer to approaching
“net zero” as “carbon neutral” or “deep decarbonization” of the economy. This could be achieved by enhancing
removals to exceed natural plus human-related emissions. The level of emissions could be greater to the degree that
enhancing removals could offset them—for example, through sequestering more carbon in trees or agricultural soils.
The UNFCCC negotiations cover both human-related emissions and enhancing removals.


6 The UNFCCC covers only GHG that are influenced by human activities but does not identify them specifically.
Implicitly, the scope includes substances that are both naturally occurring and human-related—such as CO2, methane,
and nitrous oxide, as well as manufactured-only gases, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC),
sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). Additional manufactured gases, such as clorofluorocarbons
(CFC), are also potent GHG but are not addressed under the UNFCCC; they are covered by an existing international
treaty, the 1985 Vienna Convention to Protect the Stratospheric Ozone Layer and its subsidiary Montreal Protocol and
additional amendments. Under the UNFCCC, negotiations will continue to consider the scope of compounds to be
covered by national actions and commitments.
7 These CO2 concentrations are from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2_annmean_gl.txt. Dated June 5, 2015. Earth Systems Research
Laboratory, Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.
8 Ibid.
9 U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society (United Kingdom). “Climate Change: Evidence and
Causes,” 2014, https://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/more-resources-on-climate-change/climate-change-
evidence-and-causes/.
10 See, for example, Leon Clarke et al. “Scenarios of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Atmospheric Concentrations,”
Washington DC: U.S. Climate Change Science Program, July 2007, http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap2-
1/default.php. Figure 3.22. Rising concentrations of additional GHG would add to the increase in radiative forcing of
the climate system.
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To achieve the UNFCCC’s objective over the long-term, all parties agreed to legally binding,
qualitative commitments that include (among many others) formulating, implementing,
publishing, and regularly updating programs containing measures to mitigate climate change by
addressing their GHG emissions and removals from the atmosphere (Article 4.1). Further, all
parties agreed to communicate their GHG inventories according to agreed methods and to
describe the steps taken or envisaged by the party to implement the convention. The UNFCCC
did not contain quantified obligations to achieve specific GHG emission targets, although such
obligations have been a primary topic of negotiation ever since.11
Because the stated objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations,
parties implicitly obligated themselves jointly to the objective of reducing human-related, global
GHG emissions to net zero. (See box.) Because CO2 and most other GHG remain in the
atmosphere for decades to thousands of years, they accumulate there as atmospheric
concentrations. The cumulative amount of emissions determines the level of concentrations. In
turn, the atmospheric concentrations at which GHG may stabilize determines, ultimately, the
magnitude of human-forced climate change.12
Put another way, the task of stabilizing CO2 concentrations at, say, 550 ppm or avoiding a
particular human-induced temperature increase (e.g., 2 degrees Celsius) becomes greater and
greater as net emissions continue. The “budget” of cumulative emissions consistent with a set
concentration or temperature target gets used up. Continuing net emissions leave less and less of
the budget for continuously growing economies to emit as they develop and deploy options
compatible with reaching and sustaining net zero emissions.
Parties are currently negotiating over whether to quantify the UNFCCC’s objective—currently
proposed by some as a particular temperature increase to avoid13 or a concentration target.14
Doing so would implicitly set an emissions “budget,” though it may not be legally binding and
individual parties may not be accountable for their shares of the effort.

11 See CRS Report R40001, A U.S.-Centric Chronology of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change
, by Jane A. Leggett.
12 This statement is independent of the uncertainty of how much global average temperature will increase with a given
increase in GHG concentrations. This relationship is called “climate sensitivity.” While the amount of climate
sensitivity is not precisely established, there is not scientific controversy that higher GHG concentrations will result in
higher global average temperature and other climate changes. See, for example, Richard S. Lindzen et al. “On the
Observational Determination of Climate Sensitivity and Its Implications.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric
Sciences
47, no. 4 (August 28, 2011), pp. 377-390, and discussion of a research response to Lindzen’s hypothesis:
Andy Dessler, “The Return of the Iris Effect?,” RealClimate, April 24, 2015, http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/
archives/2015/04/the-return-of-the-iris-effect/#ITEM-18375-5. See also CRS Report RL34266, Climate Change:
Science Highlights
, by Jane A. Leggett. (Also, certain speculative human interventions are possible through geo-
engineering to modify concentrations or climate sensitivity to them. See CRS Report R41371, Geoengineering:
Governance and Technology Policy
, by Kelsi Bracmort and Richard K. Lattanzio.)
13 The 2010 Cancun Agreements recognized that deep cuts in global GHG emissions are required “with a view to
reducing global greenhouse gas emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 [degrees
Celsius] above pre-industrial levels … [and] need to consider … strengthening the long-term global goal … in relation
to a global average temperature rise of 1.5 [degrees Celsius].” UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, Report of the
Conference of the Parties on Its Sixteenth Session, Held in Cancun from 29 November to 10 December 2010,
Addendum, Part Two: Action Taken by the Conference of the Parties at Its Sixteenth Session
, FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1,
March 15, 2011, paragraph I.2.4.
14 The current negotiating text includes a proposed option to stabilize GHG concentration at 350 ppm—well below
current concentrations of CO2 only. Most other proposed options include only goals to avoid temperature increases of 2
degrees Celsius (oC) or 1.5oC (3.6o or 2.7o Fahrenheit).
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Sharing the UNFCCC Objective
The question of how to share the effort to achieve the UNFCCC’s stabilization objective has been
a core challenge for international cooperation. Because emissions come from all countries, only
limitations—then reductions—by all major emitters can stabilize the rising GHG concentrations
in the atmosphere.

“Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities”
Two principles in the UNFCCC are that (1) parties’ should act “on the basis of equity and in accordance with their
common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” (CBDR) and (2) that developed country parties
should take the lead in combating climate change. Deciding how these principles should apply to parties’
commitments beyond 2020 is a lively topic in the negotiations.

The UNFCCC incorporated “differentiation” of responsibilities in part by listing the wealthier
parties (in 1992) in Annex I of the treaty. Annex I, including the United States, the European
Union, Russia, and other then-industrialized nations,15 took on more specific obligations than
non-Annex I Parties—to adopt national policies and measures that would limit GHG emissions
and communicating them “with the aim of returning individually or jointly to their 1990 levels
these anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not controlled by
the Montreal Protocol” (Article 4.2(b)). At the same time, and reflected in the general obligations
of the UNFCCC, parties understood that all parties would need to contribute to the common
mitigation effort to meet the treaty’s objective.
Subsequent rounds of negotiations since 1992 have struggled with the existing bifurcation of
responsibilities into Annex I (“developed”) and non-Annex I (“developing”) countries.
The Kyoto Protocol’s GHG Targets for Annex B Parties Only
Immediately after the UNFCCC entered into force, the parties predicted in 1995 that voluntary
national efforts would be insufficient to meet the treaty’s objective and therefore entered into
negotiations toward a new, subsidiary agreement that would contain binding GHG abatement
obligations. In contentious negotiations over the “Berlin Mandate” for the new agreement, the
parties agreed to “no new commitments” for developing countries. The resulting 1997 Kyoto
Protocol established quantitative, legally binding emission reduction obligations during 2008-
2012 for the highest income parties listed in its Annex B, obligations that could be achieved
individually or jointly with other parties through markets and other mechanisms.
The United States is one of three of the 194 parties to the UNFCCC that is not also party to the
subsidiary Kyoto Protocol. (The other two are Canada16 and Andorra.) The United States signed

15 Annex I did not include, as examples, Brazil, China, India, Israel, Korea, Mexico, or Singapore. Some of these have
incomes per capita higher than some Annex I Parties.
16 Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in December 2012.
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the Kyoto Protocol but neither President Clinton nor President Bush sent it to the Senate for
advice and consent to ratification.
Copenhagen Accord and Cancun Agreements
In multiple decisions, the parties agreed on the importance of achieving further GHG mitigation
beyond the end of the first Kyoto commitment period (2008-2012). They expected to negotiate a
new agreement—either an amendment creating a second commitment period under the Kyoto
Protocol or new subsidiary agreement directly under the UNFCCC (or both)—in the 2009
Copenhagen meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP). Parties disagreed in Copenhagen
over whether non-Annex I Parties should take on GHG abatement commitments. The result was
the political—but not legally binding—Copenhagen Accord17 in which the parties
agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as
documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions
so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to
meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity. We should cooperate
in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, recognizing
that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries and bearing in mind
that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding
priorities of developing countries and that a low-emission development strategy is
indispensable to sustainable development.
Parties also agreed that Annex I Parties would implement “quantified economy-wide emissions
targets for 2020” that each would submit, to be compiled in a document. Non-Annex I Parties
agreed to implement GHG mitigation actions that would also be submitted and compiled. In an
important sense, this politically binding agreement arguably marked a turning point in the
negotiations as non-Annex I Parties agreed to explicit and country-specific commitments to
mitigate GHG emissions. The agreement in the Copenhagen Accord was reiterated and expanded
in the 2010 Cancun Agreements.
More than 90 parties submitted conditional or unconditional targets or “nationally appropriate
mitigation actions” that they would implement to reduce emissions by 2020. For Annex I Parties,
these pledges encompass quantified economy-wide emission reduction targets under the
convention for all developed countries (FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.6) and/or legally binding
commitments for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2013-2020.
Table 1 summarizes the pledges of selected parties to GHG reduction targets or nationally
appropriate mitigation actions
18 under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord and the 2010 Cancun
Agreements or under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (whichever is more
current).

17 Conference of the Parties, FCCC/CP/2009/11/Add.1, paragraph 2.
18 Nationally appropriate mitigation actions, or NAMAs, is a term referring to the set of policies, programs, or other
actions that non-Annex I Parties (i.e., those not listed in Annex I of the UNFCCC, generally lower income countries)
should identify to mitigate their GHG emissions. Parties that see international support for NAMAs must record them in
a registry and be subject to international measurement, reporting, and verification, according to the Copenhagen
Accord.
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The Durban Platform Negotiations Toward a New Agreement
in 2015

The circumstances and capabilities of parties have evolved in the more than two decades since the
UNFCCC was negotiated. However, the gap between obligations (but not necessarily actions) of
Annex I Parties and those of non-Annex I Parties has widened. Since the UNFCCC entered into
force in 1994, parties adopted decisions pertaining to Annex I Parties on common methods and
reporting guidelines and frequencies, terms for independent and in-country reviews, and—for
most Annex B Parties under the Kyoto Protocol—binding, quantitative targets for GHG
emissions through 2020.19 The United States—and later Australia, Canada, Japan, and Russia—
took the position that they would not agree to further GHG targets under the UNFCCC unless all
major emitting countries also took on GHG mitigation commitments.
Consequently, when UNFCCC parties agreed to engage in a new round of negotiations—the
Durban Platform for Enhanced Action—toward a new agreement “with legal force” for actions in
2020 and later, they agreed that it would be “applicable to all parties.” In concept, this mandate
could eliminate the bifurcation in the UNFCCC between Annex I and non-Annex I Parties, or
between countries with and without binding obligations for quantitative GHG mitigation.
GHG Mitigation in the “Durban Platform” Negotiations
As part of the Durban Platform negotiations, in 2013, the COP invited all parties to submit their
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) toward achieving the objective of the
UNFCCC, Article 2, in the context of adopting a protocol, another legal instrument, or an agreed
outcome with legal force under the convention applicable to all parties.20 Submission of INDCs is
without prejudice to the legal form that Nationally Determined Contributions may take in or
associated with the agreement mandated by December 2015.
All parties are expected to provide an “unconditional” INDC—a pledge of actions that the party
will undertake without dependence on assistance from other parties. Mexico has included in its
INDC a “conditional” pledge of greater GHG mitigation depending on international market
incentives and assistance. Other parties, including Brazil and Indonesia, are expected also to
submit unconditional and conditional pledges.
INDCs were to be communicated by the first quarter of 2015 for those parties ready to do so, but
for all parties “well in advance of” the 21st meeting of the COP. As of June 30, 2015, 44 parties,
including the United States, Russia, the European Union and its 28 member states, and China had
submitted INDCs containing their GHG pledges beyond 2020.
Table 1 summarizes pledges or legally binding commitments of selected parties for 2020 and for
post-2020. The list does not include the multitude of individual policies and measures enacted in
countries to reduce their emissions or to meet their existing pledges. The yes/no assessments of

19 Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in December 2012, while Australia, Japan, and Russia declined to take on
new GHG targets for the second commitment of the Kyoto Protocol, for 2013-2020.
20 UNFCCC COP 19, “Further Advancing the Durban Platform,” Report of the Conference of the Parties on Its
Nineteenth Session, Held in Warsaw from 11 to 23 November 2013, Addendum, Part Two: Actions Taken by the
Conference of the Parties at Its Nineteenth Session
, in FCCC/CP/2013/10.Add.1, Decision 1/CP.19, November 2013.
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whether parties appear to be on track to meet their 2020 pledges are derived from various analysts
in research organizations and are best considered tentative: Much may happen before 2020 to
influence GHG pathways. In some cases, whether a party may be on track to meet its pledge may
have more to do with the challenge inherent in the pledge than with the level of effort made thus
far.
As noted above, what may be perceived as “ambitious” or “fair” will continue to be an important
part of the negotiations; analysis of these issues, however, is beyond the scope of this report.
Parties were invited to address the ambition and fairness of their INDCs in their submissions. One
could expect that those topics will be debated as more INDCs are submitted and considered by
other parties.
Table 1. Parties’ Pledges to Abate Greenhouse Gas Emissions
(as of June 30, 2015)
Copenhagen Pledge or 2nd
Appears
Commitment Period of the Kyoto
on Track
Party
Protocol to 2020
for 2020?a Post-2020
Pledge
United
Reduce GHG emissions by 17% below
Y
INDC: Reduce GHG emissions by 26-28%
States
2005 levels.
below 2005 levels by 2025.
European
Reduce GHG emissions to 20% below
Y
INDC: Binding target to reduce domestic
Union
1990 levels by 2020, binding in 2nd
GHG emissions by at least 40% below 1990
commitment period of the Kyoto
levels by 2030.
Protocol.
China
Endeavor to reduce CO2 emissions
Y
INDC: Announced that, by 2030, it would:
intensity (per unit of GDP) by 40-45%
by 2020 below 2005 level. Intends to
• Achieve peaking of carbon dioxide
increase share of non-fossil fuels in
(CO2) emissions around 2030 and make
primary energy consumption to around
best efforts to peak earlier;
15% by 2020. Also intends to increase
forest coverage by 40 million hectares
• Increase the share of non-fossil fuel
and forest stock volume by 1.3 billion
energy sources to around 20% of
cubic meters by 2020 compared with
primary energy supply;
2005.
• Lower CO2 emitted per unit of gross
domestic product (GDP) by 60-65%
compared with the 2005 level;

Expand forest stock volume by around
4.5 billion cubic meters (m3) compared
with 2005 levels; and

“Proactively” adapt to climate change.
Australia
Reduce GHG emissions by 5% below
Y
INDC expected in mid-2015.
2000 levels, including credits from
LULUCF.b
Brazil
Reduce by 36.1% to 38.9% compared
Y N.A.c
to business-as-usual (BAU) emission
trajectories, conditional on
international financing. Includes
LULUCF.
Canada
Reduce GHG emissions by 17% below
N INDC: Reduce GHG emissions by 30% below
2005 levels by 2020.
2005 levels by 2030.
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Copenhagen Pledge or 2nd
Appears
Commitment Period of the Kyoto
on Track
Party
Protocol to 2020
for 2020?a Post-2020
Pledge
India
Reduce its GHG intensity by 20-25%
Y
Many expect India to submit an INDC for
compared to 2005 levels, excluding
2030 based on its own efforts and another
agricultural emissions.
conditioned on financial and technological
assistance. India has said that it will not pledge
Plans to instal 175 GW of renewable
a peak year of emissions but may pledge a
energy capacity by 2022, with 100 GW
GHG intensity target or one for renewable
from solar and 38.5 GW from wind,
energy. It has proposed to curb production
partly financed by a tax on coal.
or consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC)
November 2014 announcement:
under the Montreal Protocol. According to
Reduce emission intensity of GDP by
an Indian newspaper, ‘”Outcome of the Indo-
20-25% by 2020 from 2005 level, and
US deal in renewable energy sector will guide
add 30 GW of renewable energy
India in coming out with its INDC in June,"
capacity during 2012-2017.
said an official.d India is against ex-ante review
of INDC or pressure to revise it. INDC may
emphasize adaptation.
Indonesia
Reduce GHG emissions by 26% below
N N.A.
BAU unilaterally, and by 41%
conditioned on international support.
Includes LULUCF.
Japan
Reduce GHG emissions by 26% below
Y
INDC: Reduce GHG emissions by 26% below
2013 levels (3.8% below FY2005
FY2013 levels in 2030 (24.5% below 2005
levels), changed following the
levels). INDC expected in mid-2015.
Fukushima nuclear disaster from its
Copenhagen target of 25% below 1990
In transparent explanation of the
by 2020.
government’s assumptions, the share of
nuclear in electricity supply would be 20-22%
by 2030. The share of renewable energy
technologies would increase to 22-24%, lead
by hydro power to approx. 9%, and solar to
7%. Coal would take a 26% share.
Mexico
Reduce GHG emissions to 30% below
N
INDC: Implies that GHG emissions will peak
BAU, conditioned on adequate financial
in 2026. Reductions by 2030 from BAU
and technological support.
projections of 25% of all GHG and SLCPe
emissions, implying a reduction of GHG by
22% and black carbon aerosols by 51%. Total
reductions could increase to 40% conditioned
on international market incentives and
policies. Long-term domestic goal to reduce
GHG emissions to 50% below 2000 levels by
2050. Includes adaptation commitments for
2030, inter alia, to strengthen adaptive
capacities of most vulnerable municipalities,
and establish early warning systems and risk
management practices.
South
Reduce GHG emissions by 34% below
?
See Copenhagen pledge for 2025 target.
Africa
BAU by 2020, and by 42% by 2025,
Expected to give prominence to adaptation
capped at this level, and conditioned
and fairness issues. Mitigation target likely to
on international support.
be for 2030.
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Copenhagen Pledge or 2nd
Appears
Commitment Period of the Kyoto
on Track
Party
Protocol to 2020
for 2020?a Post-2020
Pledge
South
Reduce GHG emissions by 30% below
N
INDC: Reduce its GHG emissions by 37%
Korea
BAU emissions (813 million tons of all
from a 2030 BAU level (851 million metric
GHG expressed as CO2-equivalents) in
tons of CO2-equivalent). Intends to use
2020.
international carbon credits to achieve this
target in part. No decision yet on whether
emissions and removals from the land sector
will be included. States that it aims to reduce
its GHG emissions by 49-70% from 2010
levels by 2050.
Russia
Reduce GHG emissions by 25% below
Y
INDC: “Long-term indicator” to limit GHG
1990 levels, conditioned on accounting
to 25-30% below 1990 levels by 2030, subject
of forestry sector and binding
to the “maximum allowance” of credits for
obligations from all major emitting
CO2 removals by land use changes and
countries.
forestry. Target conditioned on what “major
emitters” pledge.
Sources: CRS from various sources, widely available. The notes below provide references to difficult-to-find
information. INDCs available at http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx.
In addition, for Brazil: http://climateobserver.org/country-profiles/brazil/.
For South Korea: Ministry of Environment, http://eng.me.go.kr/eng/web/index.do?menuId=108&findDepth=1.
Notes:
a. Many of the assessments of whether a party is on track to meet its Copenhagen pledge come from analysis
of assessments done by ClimateActionTracker.org, a pro-GHG mitigation research group, supplemented by
additional sources. Any prediction is, of course, subject to uncertainty.
b. LULUCF means Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry activities. Credits may result by reducing
deforestation or land degradation, or by increasing rates of removals by growing vegetation.
c. N.A. means not available.
d. Mohan Vishwa, “PM-Led Climate Panel to Pick Issues for Obama Talks,” The Times of India, January 19, 2015,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/PM-led-climate-panel-to-pick-issues-for-Obama-talks/articleshow/
45934516.cms.
e. SLCP means Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, a category that includes such radiatively active emissions, such
as black carbon aerosols.
CRS does not intend to include all 195 parties to the UNFCCC in Table 1 as INDCs are
submitted. Parties not included in Table 1 that have submitted INDCs are, as of July 20, 2015,
Andorra, Ethiopia, Gabon, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia,
Singapore, and Switzerland.

Author Contact Information
Jane A. Leggett
Specialist in Energy and Environmental Policy
jaleggett@crs.loc.gov, 7-9525

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