The UN climate change secretariat has
launched a new interim public registry to capture countries’ formal climate
action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Known as nationally determined
contributions (NDCs), they set out publicly what each country plans to do as
part of the Paris Agreement to contribute to the international effort to secure
a sustainable future for all by keeping the global temperature rise since
pre-industrial times well below two degrees Celsius, with a preference to limit
it to 1.5 degrees.
The NDCs showcase countries’ climate
policies and actions to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change across
many sectors, for example such as decarbonizing energy supply through shifts to
renewable energy, energy efficiency improvements, better land management, urban
planning and transport.
The launch of the registry heralds a key
step towards implementing the Paris Agreement that has now been signed by 177 countries.
“The Paris Agreement marked the start of a
new era in international climate change cooperation,” said UNFCCC Executive
Secretary Christiana Figueres. “The launch of the interim public registry for
NDCs underpins the collective trust and goodwill that led to the historic
agreement and is a new milestone on the road to its implementation.”
The new interim registry for NDCs is the
principal instrument to formally record action taken by countries under the
Agreement. It is a fully transparent channel of communication where anyone can
browse and search for information on what countries are doing to tackle climate
change.
Ahead of Paris, as part of the negotiating
process, countries had submitted their climate action plans based on their
national circumstances and interests, which were called ‘intended nationally
determined contributions’, or INDCs. The Paris Agreement included a change in
legal status of these climate action plans, turning what were intentions, or
INDCs, into concrete plans for action known as NDCs.
If an INDC has been submitted by a Party
under the UNFCCC – and there are now 189 INDCs already submitted - and that
Party ratifies the Agreement, then that INDC will be considered their first
NDC, unless the Party decides otherwise. Parties can also make changes to a
communicated INDC by submitting a new NDC. Countries have also been invited to
communicate their first NDC before their instrument of ratification of the
Agreement has been submitted.
The
Paris Agreement establishes the principle that future national plans will be no
less ambitious than existing ones. National contributions are expected to be
made more ambitious over time as climate finance and other forms of
multilateral cooperation spurred by the Agreement become mobilized.
The interim public registry will be
presented at a side event taking place on 18 May during the Bonn session, where
countries will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the registry’s
design and features.
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