Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Deal consist of countries' self-defined climate goals and must be updated every five years. They help track countries' progress towards their targets, while assumed to be effective because they increase transparency and outline where countries need support. Despite the role of NDCs as a governance instrument for the climate treaty, little is known about whether countries have been fully committed to climate actions aligned with NDCs. In this study, we investigated how countries had responded to the call for updating the second NDCs or submitting new NDCs. We also explored the factors that could drive countries' different responses to NDC updates and submissions. We find that countries with political stability but low vulnerability to climate change are more likely to submit updated or new NDCs. In contrast, politically unstable countries and highly vulnerable to climate change would be less likely to update NDCs, demonstrating the challenges of keeping their commitments to the Paris climate deal. Our study provides insights into bolstering the NDC update process that could strengthen developing countries' capacity to implement NDCs and coordinate their NDCs with their national policies and development agendas.