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Developing and implementing climate action plans that integrate energy, health and sustainable development goals is essential for building a sustainable and resilient future. SEI research provides tools and insights into synergistic planning, highlighting the potential for ambitious and effective NDCs.
National climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs, are at the heart of the Paris Agreement. In this treaty, countries committed to limiting global warming to “well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The Paris Agreement requests countries to submit updated NDCs every five years to the UNFCCC secretariat. They are encouraged to submit NDCs that reflect increased ambition, whether in terms of strengthened targets, accelerated timelines, or a broader scope covering additional sectors or greenhouse gases. The idea is that over time, the aggregate reductions in emissions will put the world on a Paris-compatible pathway.
Much of our NDC work concentrates on ensuring that countries are put in a position to plan for climate, energy, and sustainable development in an integrated manner. The cornerstone is our Initiative on Integrated Climate and Development Planning that aims to enable low- and middle-income countries to integrate planning to achieve NDCs and Sustainable Development Goals, leveraging technological and methodological advances.
Tool / The Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) is a powerful, versatile system for energy planning and climate change mitigation assessment.
Tool / The Next Energy Modeling system for Optimization (NEMO) is a high-performance, open-source optimization tool designed to answer energy policy questions.
SEI is a recognized leader in helping countries integrate air quality and climate change strategies. Working with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, we are supporting more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to identify actions that can improve air quality, human health and mitigate climate change.
SEI brief / How SEI’s Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) and Integrated Benefits Calculator can help plan coherent emission reduction strategies with health benefits.
Perspective / Reducing air pollution supports development goals. Here’s how it also helps countries enhance their commitments to mitigate emissions.
Perspective / Blog post from the Green Climate Fund on climate change and air pollution, two of the greatest environmental challenges of our time.
Coherence between climate and development policies helps make progress both on NDCs and on the Sustainable Development Goals.
But incoherence between climate and development policies remains a real and widespread challenge in many countries.
SEI brief / A new analysis looks at six countries and identifies the synergies and conflicts between nationally determined contributions and Sustainable Development Goals.
Journal article / The editorial to a special issue of the journal Climate Policy: Making Climate Action More Effective: Lessons Learned from the First NDCs.
Perspective / The disconnect between global climate and sustainable development agendas is often reflected in policy incoherence at the national level fostering inequality.
Perspective / National climate action plans are often framed narrowly and may overlook important aspects of climate change and development.
Tool / Analyze and compare how climate actions correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our work shows what specific measures countries can take to wind down fossil fuel production, and how these can be integrated into NDCs and development strategies. It also focuses on how to manage the fossil-fuel wind-down equitably.
SEI report / Amid growing momentum to link fossil fuel production and climate goals, transparency on countries’ alignment with Paris goals is crucial to assessing progress.
SEI working paper / Nationally determined contributions could help in the wind-down of oil, gas and coal production. But countries are only making limited use of this potential.
Project / This database showcases ongoing research into Covid-19 recovery packages from a climate and energy perspective.
Journal article / This paper looks at where and how to equitably phase out oil, gas and coal production.
Emitting 30% of global CO2 emissions, industry is a crucial player when it comes to mitigating climate change.
But so far, most NDCs are lacking details on how countries plan to cut emissions from industry.
Feature / An SEI analysis shows that nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement are short on detail when it comes to cutting emissions from industry.
Other publication / Read recommendations for shaping the COVID-19 recovery so that it supports low-carbon transitions for industry.
Countries must submit more ambitious climate plans under the Paris Agreement in 2020. Any further delay in combatting climate change makes it almost impossible to limit average global warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
But even while ambition is key, it is not enough: NDCs need to also be coherent, effective and implementable.
Journal article / The editorial to a special issue of the journal Climate Policy: Making Climate Action More Effective: Lessons Learned from the First NDCs.
Perspective / To go beyond ambition and enhance the effectiveness of NDCs, countries need to improve the transparency, coherence and implementability of NDCs.
Feature / A special issue of Climate Policy edited by SEI’s Richard Klein and Pieter Pauw identified three dimensions of making NDCs more effective.
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