Next Generation NDCs
NDC Opportunities by Sector
Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) will require immediate action to transform nearly every economic sector. The previous rounds of NDCs (in 2015 and 2020-2021) saw countries mostly committing to reduce economy-wide GHG emissions; few laid out sector-specific goals for either mitigation or adaptation. Countries should use their 2025 NDCs to set sector-specific targets that underpin their top-line emissions-reduction goals.
About NDC Sectoral Targets
Establishing ambitious, timebound targets in key areas — such as energy, food, agriculture and land-use — will be key to driving real and rapid transformation. These can include targets such as gigawatts of renewable energy generation or emissions from a sector. Setting these targets can help guide domestic policymaking across the whole of government, jumpstarting a process with ministries to integrate targets into strategic planning.
Sectoral targets also communicate a country’s direction of travel more clearly to all relevant stakeholders, including ministries, public entities, the private sector and investors. This can help drive the investment and policies needed to implement its NDC. The clearer countries’ climate priorities are at a sectoral level, including targets and financial needs, the better the chance of delivering them and garnering support from key stakeholders. Learn more about how to finance an NDC here.
Aligning NDCs with Global Sectoral Targets
Global sectoral targets aimed at achieving 1.5 degrees C can offer a framework from which countries set their national sectoral targets. There is no perfect way of translating global goals and milestones into national ambition and action; however, sectoral targets at a global level can help provide a starting point for where individual countries need to be.
The State of Climate Action series, published by Systems Change Lab, translates the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree-C temperature limit into quantitative, timebound targets across sectors that account for roughly 85% of global greenhouse gas emissions: power, buildings, industry, transport, forests and land-use, and food and agriculture. These reports also establish targets focused on scaling up carbon removal technologies and climate finance, both of which will be needed to mitigate climate change.
Explore Global Sectoral Targets for 2030, 2035 and 2050
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