It is crucial for the success of the Paris Agreement that the updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that countries submit build on and learn from the first round of NDCs. This special issue of Climate Policy aims to stimulate debate on how to make NDCs more effective.
The eight papers in the special issue cover mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation, and discuss key elements of the Paris Agreement and broader climate policy, including the Enhanced Transparency Framework and the Paris Committee on Capacity Building, as well as considerations of equity and development.
This editorial article first presents a short history of NDCs. It then describes the respective contribution of each of the eight papers in the special issue in terms of transparency, coherence and implementability, and summarizes their key insights. Finally, it recommends next steps.
Links to the articles in the special issue can be found below. Note that they will soon be made open access.
- Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) as instruments for promoting national development agendas? An analysis of small island developing states (SIDS)
- Transparency requirements under the Paris Agreement and their (un)likely impact on strengthening the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs)
- The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement: Voluntary contributions towards thematic policy coherence
- What are the implications of the Paris Agreement for inequality?
- Ambition in the making: Analysing the preparation and implementation process of the Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement
- Capacity building for implementation of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement
- Exploring links between national climate strategies and non-state and subnational climate action in nationally determined contributions (NDCs)
- Conditional nationally determined contributions in the Paris Agreement: foothold for equity or Achilles heel?
