Paris Agreement watchdog weighs action against countries missing climate plan

Composed of 12 experts from different regions of the world, the little-known Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee (PAICC) is tasked with ensuring that nations respect their obligations under the landmark 2015 climate accord, which requires signatory governments to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and update them every five years.

“Editing:Joe Lo The Paris Agreement’s official oversight body is set to decide this month how to deal with over 60 countries that have still not submitted updated national climate plans, over a year after the deadline”

Climate Home News

Governments agreed that NDCs should be submitted 9–12 months before the next UN climate summit, and for COP30 that deadline was 10 February 2025.

Climate Home News

Over a year after that deadline, sixty-two countries have not yet produced an updated NDC, including significant emitters like India, Vietnam, Argentina and Egypt.

PAICC cannot punish countries, but it can publicly reprimand them for their failure to file new NDCs and other transparency reports and ask them to explain themselves.

After the overwhelming majority of nations missed the February 2025 deadline, PAICC opened over 170 separate cases to engage with governments on why they had not yet issued a climate plan and what steps they were taking to address the delay, and cases are closed once countries submit their NDCs.

Climate Home News

While the majority of countries responded to the panel’s enquiries, the PAICC’s annual report said that over 45 nations had failed to provide any information by October 2025, which raised the committee’s concern.

A PAICC member who did not wish to be named told Climate Home News that efforts to maintain an open dialogue will continue but the committee will now also discuss how to proceed further with countries that remain out of step with their commitments, and the committee will hold a meeting in the German city of Bonn between 24-27 March.

Governments defined the committee’s mandate at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in 2018 and produced a list of “appropriate measures” it can take to promote compliance, including helping countries access technical help or finance, recommending the development of an action plan or “issuing findings of fact” when a country fails to submit an NDC.

“Editing:Joe Lo The Paris Agreement’s official oversight body is set to decide this month how to deal with over 60 countries that have still not submitted updated national climate plans, over a year after the deadline”

Climate Home News

The PAICC member said the committee still needs to determine exactly what the last option means in practice, but it will likely take the form of a public statement identifying countries that have failed to comply.

The panel could potentially take other actions beyond those listed in its mandate as long as they are not punitive or adversarial.

The member added: “This is a new era, so every step we take we do it for the first time,” and warned that “The legal obligations [of the Paris Agreement] are few and far between, so it is even more important to keep tabs on whether countries respect them.”

Many governments that have not yet submitted NDCs are low-emitting small or poorer nations, especially in Africa, but major economies without an updated climate plan include India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt and Argentina, and countries without a new NDC contribute to 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to data compiled by ClimateWatch.

India is the largest emitter without an NDC; at COP30 the Indian government said that it would submit its climate plan “on time”, with environment minister Bhupender Yadav telling reporters it would be delivered “by December”, but that self-imposed deadline was not met.

Climate Home News

Argentina’s right-wing government, which has considered leaving the Paris Agreement, unveiled caps on the country’s emissions for 2030 and 2035 in an online event on November 3 but has yet to formalise those targets in an NDC; Undersecretary of the Environment Fernando Brom told Climate Home News that the country would present its NDC during the first week of COP30, which did not happen, and some local experts pointed to the trade deal signed with the US or the government’s disinterest in the climate agenda as reasons for the delay.

In January the Vietnamese government said it was still working on the draft of its NDC, while the Philippines’ government has organised consultation events on its new NDC but has not indicated when it would be released.

Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at campaigning group 350.org, told Climate Home News that national climate plans are “the currency of the Paris Agreement and how the world tracks progress and how countries plan their transitions” and that “Countries, especially the largest emitters, must honour their obligations under the Paris Agreement and submit credible NDCs.”