A new report by Neil Bird of ODI and Claire Monkhouse and Katharine Booth of CDKN examines how to support the successful integration of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into national development planning.

The adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 signalled a major transition in the international climate change governance regime. The Agreement outlines the agreed global process for when the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2020. One of the building blocks of the Agreement is the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), to which individual countries commit, in order to achieve the objective of keeping global warming as far as possible below 2°C, with the aim of 1.5°C. NDCs reflect each country’s ambition for reducing emissions, considering their domestic circumstances and capabilities. In addition, developing countries have given emphasis in their first NDCs to how they will adapt to the impacts of climate change, and the finance and other forms of support they will need to deliver their commitments and action. In future, countries will be required to submit updated and more ambitious NDCs every five years, starting in 2020. Consequently, NDCs are now central to the long-term international and domestic climate change policy landscape.

The paper develops a set of ten propositions that, if followed, would likely secure this objective. Each proposition is examined using evidence primarily from seven countries where the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has supported the development and early implementation of NDCs. It provides illustrations of these propositions in practice, drawing on experience from CDKN’s technical assistance and elsewhere.

The evidence suggests that the policy and planning framework in the seven countries examined is generally supportive of mainstreaming climate change actions into national development planning; that there are challenges in securing institutional effectiveness for the delivery of NDC commitments, often reflecting differing capacities across sectors and different levels of government; and that the financing of NDCs remains unclear, being dependent to-date on national budget allocations for which there has been limited monitoring of the relevant spending.

Download the report here: 10 propositions for success: Integrating international climate change commitments into national development planning

Image credit: Asian Development Bank/Flickr