The EU, Australia, South Africa and India are among a host of big polluters expected to miss a UN deadline for new climate targets, coming up against economic constraints and political pressure following the Trump election.
Under the process started by the Paris agreement signed nearly a decade ago, almost 200 countries are due to submit fresh climate plans to the UN by early next week. The plans are meant to include a specific country-specific headline figures for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
Many countries are already far off track for the 2030 targets they had set, with emissions still rising despite scientists warning that to limit global warming they must fall by almost half by the end of the decade from 2019 levels.