China, Indonesia and Vietnam must aim for deeper emissions cuts as their current plans are too polluting and more expensive than cleaner alternatives, BloombergNEF said in a report.

The three countries accounted for 34% of global energy sector emissions last year and “have the most scope to increase their ambition,” BNEF said in its New Energy Outlook on Tuesday. Countries like India, South Korea, Germany, the US and Australia, while on a better footing to achieve net zero, also have room to step up emissions cuts, according to the report, which examined a total of 12 countries covering two-thirds of the world’s energy emissions.

China, the world’s biggest emitter, which has pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, burned record amounts of coal, oil and natural gas in 2023, but is also rapidly expanding renewable energy use. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Vietnam, the biggest emitters in Southeast Asia, are recipients of funding deals worth billions of dollars from the G-7 advanced economies to finance their transition from coal and bring forward peak-emissions dates.

But their official climate targets submitted to the United Nations neither meet a scenario in which global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, nor do they align with the most economically rational decisions, BNEF said.

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Even in a scenario where renewables grow to take more than a 50% share of global energy supply by 2030, countries like Indonesia and Vietnam are likely to see emissions rise until late into the next decade, BNEF said.

China is better placed to be more ambitious with its targets, thanks to its strong track record of green power deployment, it added.

Nations submit emissions-reduction and climate adaptation goals known as Nationally Determined Contributions to the UN every five years. The next round of NDCs will be due next year at a climate conference in Brazil.

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