[EDIT] A new version of this pocket guide has been published here.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are key to saving our climate.
As a crucial part of the global climate negotiations, they are also complicated documents caught in the crossfire between policy, science, finance and necessity.
To make information on the NDCs and all their complicated processes and issues more accessible and easy to understand, UNEP DTU Partnership has produced a Pocket Guide to NDCs, under the European Capacity Building Initiative (ecbi).
Click to download the Pocket Guide to NDCs.
The Pocket Guide to NDCs covers all aspects of the NDCs – from the history behind them to what they should contain as well as challenges and best practice examples of implementation.
It also contains information on how to ensure accountability and transparency in NDCs, the possibilities of funding and broadens the discussion by including information on NDC related issues such as the Talanoa Dialogue and the link between NDCs and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Levelling the playing field
The aim of the guidebook is to create a more level playing field for developing countries in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
As the threat of climate change grows rather than diminishes, developing countries will need capable negotiators to defend their threatened populations. This pocket guide is a small contribution to the armoury of information that they will need to be successful.
Following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 the ecbi produced guides to the Agreement in English and in French. These proved popular with both new and senior negotiators. The ecbi therefore decided to develop a series of thematic guides, to provide negotiators with a brief history of the negotiations on the topic; a ready reference to the key decisions that have already been adopted; and a brief analysis of the outstanding issues from a developing country perspective. These Guides are mainly web-based, and updated regularly.
NDCs determine the results
The foundation of the Paris Agreement’s architecture is that all Parties will nationally determine what actions they are able and willing to take in achieving the purpose of the Agreement.
The actions contained in all NDCs represent the collective global effort, which will determine whether the world will achieve the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement or not. The NDCs are therefore the central element of the Paris Agreement and the main climate change policy framework.
The NDC Partnership has developed a number of online tools to help address the challenges outlined in the Pocket Guide to NDCs, empowering countries to accelerate climate action and take on more ambitious goals. These tools, can be found on the NDC Partnership Knowledge Portal.
This project is supported by the Climate Policy Support Programme of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).