Papua New Guinea logs first official climate plan under Paris Agreement

The United Nations has launched a new website to track national climate action plans as part of the COP21 Paris Agreement.

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) were submitted by nearly 200 UN member states in the build up to December’s historic climate summit in the French capital.

The historic deal reached in Paris means that countries can now submit final Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and Papua New Guinea became the first to officially present its plan this week.

The INDCs include measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost resilience to climate change.

The official ratification ceremony for the Paris Agreement is scheduled to take place in April in New York City and the UN has requested that nations now formally file their plans.

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the agency that leads the climate talks, announced the launching of the new website on Tuesday to log the official climate action plans.

In a statement, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, said: "I congratulate Papua New Guinea on this first NDC… Before the UN climate change conference in Paris, the international community had already envisioned an unprecedented response with almost every nation on Earth setting out their preliminary action plans to address climate change.”

Ms Figueres added: “These provide the foundation upon which the world will over time strengthen their ability to keep a global temperature rise well under 2C if not 1.5C, and build resilient societies. Much more remains to be done but NDCs under the Paris Agreement represent one of the next key steps alongside the opening for signature of the Agreement in New York on April 22 en route to it swiftly coming into force."