Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, are key elements of the Paris Agreement, the global climate change accord signed in the French capital in December 2015.
This includes the emission reduction targets that each signatory country must submit in its ‘intended nationally determined contributions,’ or INDCs, which are basically climate action plans that set out how each country will act to address climate change.
These contributions include the emission reduction targets and the approaches to deal with the effects of climate change. This indicates that NDCs are national commitments that are tailored to a country’s resources, economy, and environment. They incorporate the objectives of each country on their path: a low-carbon economy and climate change adaptation.
NDCs are based on the principle of CBDR, which suggests that all countries need to take measures to address climate change; however, the countries’ efforts are channeled in accordance to their capability and emissions levels.
The concept is that each country, no matter how developed it is, should participate in the international assessment of measures towards ensuring that the global temperatures should not rise beyond 2.0°C above the pre-industrial level with a more preferable target of 1.5°C.
Why Are NDCs Important?
There are many reasons why National Climate Change/National (Intended) Contributions (NDCs) are important in addressing climate change. Above all, they act as the pillars of the world climate response policy within the Paris Agreement.
Without these contributions, it would not be possible to come up with ways of handling the climate change problem across the world. When goals have been defined, the countries can be made to answer to an international authority; hence, the question of responsibility arises.
Besides, NDCs enhance the level of transparency and global cooperation. The countries must update their progress continually and keep reporting on it, and this has acts as a way of strengthening the credibility of one nation to another.
This also gives civil society, businesses, and other actors the ability to track progress and to demand higher levels of action where needed. Moreover, the construction of NDCs to be submitted every five years also helps the country to gradually raise their levels of as circumstances and new technologies develop.
NDCs also act a critical tool in the global efforts to secure finance, technology, and capacity-building resources for developing countries.
Challenges in Implementing NDCs
Nonetheless, there are several difficulties that have been realized in the implementation of NDCs. First, there is an inconsistency between the current set of NDCs and what is required to realize the Paris Agreement temperature goals.
At this, the sum of commitments from all nations all indicates insufficient support to ensure that the global increase in average temperatures does not exceed 1.5 °C. This ‘ambition gap’ implies that in future NDC updates, countries will need to step up their commitments considerably.
Furthermore, inadequate human and material capital in the developing countries constrains their bid to enforce their NDCs to the maximum. However, this has been found to be inadequate or even late, hence hampering the implementation process by forming bottlenecks. Also, domestic political and economic considerations hinder climate change mitigation and deepen the challenge of fulfilling NDCs.
The Future of NDCs
Therefore, the ability of the international community to step up and take more action to combat climate change will determine the future of NDCs. This is due to the fact that countries are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, which puts pressure on them to increase their level of commitment.
The next time such stocktaking is going to be in 2023, when the parties will collectively have to review the implementation progress, and for that, it would be a favorable time to revisit and enhance the stringency of the NDCs.
Therefore, it is possible to conclude that NDCs are important in combating climate change as they offer countries an avenue in which to participate in achieving set climate targets. As the continuous process of updating and improving NDCs continues, it seems possible the world can remain on course to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement.
The overall success of NDCs is going to depend on the ability of nations to set ambitious targets, on the sourcing of funds, and most importantly, on the executive sums of will to bring about the required change from governments, businesses, and civil societies.
ASH CK