Countries hike climate pledges, piling pressure on major emitters

A group of mostly smaller countries submitted new, more ambitious climate pledges to the United Nations this week, raising pressure on big emitters including China to do the same ahead of a major UN climate summit in November.

UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said that as of Saturday the United Nations had received new pledges from 110 countries, out of the nearly 200 that signed the 2015 Paris climate accord.

"It is still far from satisfactory, since only a little over half the parties 58 per cent have met the cut-off deadline," Espinosa said in a statement, urging laggards to "redouble their efforts" and make more ambitious commitments to protect the planet.

A total of 15 countries - most of them small and with relatively low CO2 emissions - submitted new pledges this week, ahead of a July 30 deadline for them to be counted in a UN report.

They included Sri Lanka, Israel, Malawi and Barbados. Malaysia, Nigeria and Namibia were among the larger countries to submit tougher climate

targets this week.

With deadly heatwaves, flooding and wildfires occurring around the world, calls are growing for urgent action to cut the CO2 emissions heating the planet.