To identify means to improve mitigation efforts, we investigated whether the number of climate policies is associated with emission projections up to 2030 and compared policies’ prevalence across country groups. We find that larger and more comprehensive policy portfolios are conducive to emission reductions, regardless of whether absolute emissions increase or already decline. However, country groups have distinct entry points to expand climate policy. Countries with fast-increasing emissions have significantly fewer policies overall but policies are especially missing in energy-demand sectors, such as buildings and transport. Countries with stalling emissions lack climate strategies and other cross-sectoral policies. This suggests the need for better coordination of mitigation efforts across sectors. In all country groups that fail to reduce emissions, policies to reduce energy and material demand are also substantially fewer. Despite the collective increase of policies in force, countries can still expand climate policy to use the full breadth of mitigation options available.