Belem, Brazil – The newly submitted nationally determined contributions (NDCs) will trim global emissions by 12 percent throughyear 2035, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has declared at the opening ceremony of COP30 Climate Change Summit here, but admitted it still won’t be enough to cool a planet on the brink.

That was an improvement from what was initially announced as 10% global emissions reduction during the launch of the NDC Synthesis Report in October this year. As of the recent count, 101 countries have pledged to lodge new NDCs, and 64 of them have already formally submitted.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell qualified the 12% emissions cut by 2035 as “a big deal,” adding that “every fraction of a degree of heating avoided will save millions of lives and billions of dollars in climate damage. And these cuts will get deeper and deeper as we move faster and faster.”

He asserted, “The good news is: we are not starting from nothing. The Paris Agreement is delivering real progress. We are now bending the curve of planet-heating emissions downwards – for the very first time.”

Stiell, nevertheless, reckoned that despite progress, the climate emergency continues to menace humanity, citing the Philippines and other high-risk nations on the frontlines.

“Global heating is already dealing some devastating blows in every country. Just look at the super typhoons blasting the Philippines and Vietnam, the brutality of Hurricane Melissa crushing lives and businesses – the costs of delay are skyrocketing, for every nation,” he stressed.

The UN official highlighted, “this COP process is ultimately all about people. People who may not follow every negotiation, but who feel the consequences – in their anxiety about intensifying disasters, in food prices, insurance costs, and energy bills that rise with every drought, flood, storm, and heatwave.”

He expounded that the fate of the most vulnerable, from the Amazon to other high-risk regions, demands a faster and more aggressive push to curb global warming.

“Make no mistake – humanity is still in this fight.  We have some tough opponents, no doubt, but we also have some heavyweights on our side,” Stiell said.

He pointed out that global emissions are being tapered, in part, through powerful levers such as large-scale renewable investments that are effectively reshaping the energy landscape previously dominated by fossil fuels; as he also reinforced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent message in New York that “clean energy is the trend of our time.”

“One is the brute power of market forces, as renewables get cheaper – they’re now cheaper than 90% of all [fossil fuels].  That's why renewables have overtaken fossil fuels in investment and overtook coal this year as the world's top energy source,” he emphasized.

He further stated that “policies once unthinkable are now rippling through markets, and change is becoming unstoppable. Extraordinary progress that was unimaginable a decade ago.”

Stiell added that major economies are already stepping up, seeing climate action not as a cost, but as the century’s biggest economic opportunity.