published on Climate Home 17.03.2016
Known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in UN jargon, these documents offered the clearest signal yet the world is on a pathway to a low-carbon future. If these INDCs are going to be the foundations to address climate change globally, we need to make sure they are clear, secure and durable. We also need to look at the INDCs in the context of all three aims of the Paris Agreement: not just limiting global warming, but also climate finance and adaptation. The German Development Institute and the African Centre for Technology Studies have built a model to analyse and compare the ambitions of governments, and come to two surprising results.