Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) White Paper

This White Paper offers a preliminary analysis of the urban content of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from March 2017 through the end of September 2021. It also trials an in-depth country level analysis that includes, to a limited extent, related national climate policies. A draft of this document was launched at COP26 in Glasgow, in November 2021. Stakeholder comments have seen been incorporated. A more comprehensive Policy Paper is under preparation for launch at COP27 with a view to provide guidance for Parties to the UNFCCC to strengthen the urban dimension in their NDCs and Implementation Mechanisms with a view to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The 2021 global analysis of the urban content of the NDCs shows that: (1) 84% of the NDCs contain strong or moderate urban content; (2) NDCs with urban content have significantly increased in comparison with the 2016 analysis; (3) NDCs with strong urban content have significantly increased from 16 percent in 2016 to 45 percent in 2021.