UNDP.org May 31, 2023
Summary
- Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, are countries’ self-defined national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, detailing what they will do to help meet the global goal to pursue 1.5°C, adapt to climate impacts and ensure sufficient finance to support these efforts.
- NDCs represent short- to medium-term plans and are required to be updated every five years with increasingly higher ambition, based on each country’s capabilities and capacities.
- Concrete progress is already being made towards achievement of the Paris Agreement, particularly in developing countries. For example, pledges from African countries are more robust than the global average in terms of explaining how targets will be achieved.
- NDCs represent politically backed commitments by countries. If used right, they could be our way out of tackling the world’s current crises – not just the climate crisis, but other systemic problems like biodiversity loss and energy security as well.
What are Nationally Determined Contributions and where do they come from?
The Paris Agreement changed the face of climate action.
The legally binding international treaty, which was adopted in 2015 by all 196 Parties to the UN Climate Convention in Paris, established universal global goals endorsed by all countries. Primarily, this includes ensuring global average temperature rise is held well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. It also includes an aim to increase the ability to adapt to climate impacts, and make finance flows consistent with country needs to achieve these goals.
CVD 