30/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Papua New Guinea is first country in world to submit its formal contribution to the Paris Agreement. Papua New Guinea, an ACP partner of the EU, is the world's first country to submit its official climate action plan since a United Nations web page was opened to gather nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the UN announced on Tuesday 29 March. INDCs (indicative nationally determined contributions), presented by most countries ahead of COP 21, set out only proposed national contributions but NDCs are a formal declaration of the action that each country will undertake under the Paris Agreement to contribute to global efforts to keeping average temperature rise on the surface of the planet to below 2 degrees Celsius, and even 1.5 degrees C. The secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has announced that it is preparing to launch a new formal registry of NDCs in about a month's time. (AN)