Overall, governments' pledges for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions are not enough to limit a rise in temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), seen as a threshold for damaging heat waves, downpours and rising sea levels, it said.
"The ambition of all major developed countries falls well short of their fair shares," according to the report by groups including Christian Aid, Oxfam, the International Trade Union Confederation and WWF International.
The study coincides with the start of Oct. 19-23 talks among almost 200 nations in Bonn, Germany, the final U.N. session to prepare a deal due at a summit in December in Paris to limit climate change beyond 2020.
About 150 nations have so far submitted national plans for fighting climate change, as building blocks of a Paris accord. But there is no agreed system to compare each nation's level of ambition.
Monday's report said the rich could afford to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energies, while helping others, and have more responsibility because they have benefited from burning coal, oil and natural gas since the Industrial Revolution.
By those yardsticks, it estimated that the United States and the European Union had promised about a fifth of their "fair shares" and Japan about a tenth.
By contrast, it found that emerging economies' plans "exceed or broadly meet" their fair share. China was doing more than its fair share, for instance, counting its emissions since 1950, while Brazil was contributing two-thirds.
Read more at Rich Nations Lag in 'Fair Share' of Climate Action - Study
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