NDC ASPECTS – Assessing Sectoral Perspectives on Climate Transitions to Support the Global Stocktake and Subsequent Nationally Determined Contributions

One of the key features of the Paris Agreement (PA) for responding to climate change is the five-yearly Global Stocktake (GST). The purpose of the GST is to review the implementation of the PA in order to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the PA and its long-term goals. The outcome of the GST shall inform the PA’s Parties in updating and enhancing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

NDC ASPECTS will provide inputs to the GST and support the potential revision of existing NDCs**, as well as the development of new NDCs for the post-2030 period. The project will particularly focus on four sectoral systems that are highly relevant in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions they produce yet have thus far made only limited progress in decarbonization. These sectors are transport and mobility (land-based transport and international aviation & shipping), emission-intensive industries, buildings, and agriculture, forestry, and land-use**, including their supply by and interaction with the energy conversion sector.

For each of those sectors, NDC ASPECTS will undertake “Sectoral Conversations” to co-create evidence-based narratives with sectoral experts and stakeholders, drawing on the consortium’s extensive networks. These narratives will then be translated into global pathways informing the GST as well as national pathways for strategically selected countries for each of the four sectors. As an input to the Sectoral Conversations, the project will systematically assess transformation challenges and opportunities (economic, technological, political/institutional, capacity and awareness), taking into account experiences with the implementation of the first round of NDCs as well as model-based quantitative analyses. Additionally, NDC ASPECTS will identify ways and means to improve international governance to enable and facilitate sectoral transformations.