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February 16, 2026—As of the official 10-year deadline, February 10, 2025, the number of countries that had submitted their 2025 updates, according to Climate Watch’s NDC Tracker, was identical to the number in our original report card for 2020 submissions—13. Those countries were: Andorra, Brazil, Ecuador, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe. A review of the UNFCCC NDC registry indicated that Botswana and Lesotho may also have submitted their NDCs on time, though an exact reading of the NDC registry database is troublesome. According to the Climate Watch NDC tracker, five countries missed the official deadline, but did submit their updated NDCs within the month of February. Those were Canada, Cuba, Japan, Maldives and Montenegro. Interestingly, the only country that met both its 2020 and its 2025 commitments was the Marshall Islands.

However, beginning in April 2025 and continuing through the year leading up to COP30 in November, submissions accelerated sharply. Based on updates to the UNFCCC, by October–November 2025, the original 13 on-time countries had been joined by another 100 parties, including the EU, which covered all 27 of its member states in its NDC. Even after COP30, updated 2035 NFC submissions have continued, and the count, as of February 12, 2026, new NDCs for 134 countries have been submitted.

How many countries remain to submit an updated NDC? That requires some math:
According to the United Nations Climate Change portal (UNFCCC.int), the original Paris Climate Convention was attended by 198 parties. Out of those 198, 195 adopted and signed the final Paris Climate Accords at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) on December 12, 2015. Three Middle East countries—Iran, Libya and Yemen—declined. Since then, the United States has withdrawn from the Accord, effective January 26, 2026. That leaves 194 parties still operating within the framework of the agreement. However, the United States did, in December 2024, submit an updated 2035 NDC, two months before notifying the UN of its intent to withdraw. Many databases still show the U.S. as a country that submitted a new NDC. So, that means 195 – 1 (U.S.) = 194 remaining signatories, minus the 134 – 1 (U.S.) = 133 submissions still in effect. So, 194 – 133 = 61 countries have yet to submit their updated 2035 NDCs.