A Handbook for Policy and Advocacy Experts Working on National Climate Plans
October 2024
In 2025, all countries that signed the Paris Agreement will have to develop new national climate plans called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Importantly, each country gets to set its own contribution. The purpose of NDCs is to set out the contribution of each country to the Paris Agreement and can include plans for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, enhancing adaptation and resilience efforts and aligning financial flows.
There has been progress in climate ambition since the Paris Agreement, but further action is necessary to meet long-term global mitigation goals to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Immediate domestic action is required to realise the global goal of reducing emissions by 43% by 2030, by 60% by 2035 and achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This involves urgent action across economies – on energy, food and nature. Inclusive and equitable strategies are essential to support vulnerable communities and close the emissions gap. Also, embracing economic diversification and just transitions will ensure a fair and effective climate response.
Civil society has a critical role to play in ensuring that these transitions are ambitious, transparent, fair and inclusive, with no community left behind. The risks are too high for anything less. With this in mind, this handbook aims to provide a framework for civil society to develop policy asks and engage on NDCs with governments at the national level.
CONTACTS
For more information about the handbook, please contact the lead authors:
- Shirley Matheson, Global NDC Enhancement Lead, WWF International (smatheson(at)wwf.eu), www.panda.org/ndcs
- Lydia Lehlogonolo Machaka, Energy & Extractivism Officer, CIDSE (machaka(at)cidse.org), www.cidse.org
- Bettina Duerr, Energy & Climate Justice Programme Manager, Fastenaktion, (duerr(at)fastenaktion.ch), www.fastenaktion.ch
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
As part of the NDC Transparency Initiative, CIDSE is co-organising a series of five webinars “Putting the Paris Ambition Cycle into Practice ” in collaboration with CANSA, Caritas Internationalis and Alliance2015 which explores how to strengthen national engagement and advocacy to promote greater transparency, ambition and accountability in the implementation of the NDCs. The first webinar was held on 11 October. The next ones will take place on 17 October, 24 October, 31 October and 3 December 2024.