NDC Enhancement is an Issue Brief published by the NDC Partnership in August 2020. It examines how countries were approaching the 2020 update of their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, with a focus on raising ambition, improving NDC quality, and linking enhanced targets to implementation and finance.
Key insights:
The brief presents 2020 as a critical year for countries to raise climate ambition by updating their NDCs, which are revised every five years under the Paris Agreement.
It explains that many first-round NDCs submitted in 2015 were prepared quickly, often with limited data, resources, and engagement from key government and societal actors.
Countries were using the 2020 update process to make NDCs more systematic, inclusive, realistic, and implementable.
A major trend was raising ambition by updating mitigation and adaptation targets and expanding NDC coverage to more sectors of the economy.
The brief notes that 48 out of 57 countries, or 84%, were strengthening or adding new greenhouse gas targets or actions to increase mitigation and adaptation ambition.
Countries were also improving the quality of their NDCs through better data, stronger MRV systems, cost-benefit analysis, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with sectoral plans.
Whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches were highlighted as essential, including the involvement of ministries, subnational governments, the private sector, youth, women, civil society, financial institutions, and communities.
The brief stresses that enhanced NDCs must be connected to implementation through detailed roadmaps, financing strategies, bankable project pipelines, and alignment with long-term low-emission development strategies.
COVID-19 was presented as both a challenge and an opportunity: it disrupted data collection, consultations, and decision-making, but also created space to link NDCs with green recovery and climate-smart economic stimulus.
Main message: Stronger NDCs require more than higher targets; they need reliable data, inclusive participation, realistic costing, implementation roadmaps, finance strategies, and alignment with long-term development and recovery plans.
