Dr. Deepa Pullanikkatil, NDC Coordinator, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Contracted through UNDP
NDCs stand for “Nationally Determined Contributions” and in simple words, it is the Climate Action Plan of a country that is determined nationally by the country. You may have heard of the “Paris Agreement”, which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. Without staying beneath the 1.5°C, the world will face catastrophic climate change and result in large-scale drought, famine, heat stress, species die-off, loss of entire ecosystems, and loss of habitable land, throwing more than 100 million into poverty.
The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. Hence, all countries agreed to come up with NDCs, which are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of its long-term goals. NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Under the Paris Agreement, Governments agreed to come together every 5 years to assess the collective progress towards the long-term goals and update and enhance their NDCs. They also agreed to report to each other and the public on how they are implementing climate action and track progress towards their commitments under the Paris Agreement through a robust transparency and accountability system. For more information on Paris Agreement check this: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement
For the Paris Agreement goals to be achieved, every country needs to play its part. Because countries have different circumstances, resources and abilities, the agreement was designed so each country defines their own pledges, in terms of targets and contributions to the universal agreement and these form the NDCs. Eswatini’s NDC includes an economy wide emissions reduction target of 14% with external funding and up to 5% emissions reduction with domestic funding. It has emission reduction (mitigation) contributions in the sectors of Energy & Transport, Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU), Waste and Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). It has adaptation contributions for sectors Agriculture, Water, Ecosystems & Biodiversity, Health, Infrastructure and cross-cutting areas Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction and Youth. You can download Eswatini’s revised NDC from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) NDC Registry: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/NDC/2022-06/Eswatini%27s%20Revised%20NDC%2012%20Oct%202021.docx
Eswatini’s NDC was revised from her first submission in 2015 to an enhanced and more ambitious submission in 2021. Currently, Eswatini is developing the NDC Implementation plan. NDCs are submitted every five years to the UNFCCC secretariat, with the next round of NDCs (new or updated) being submitted by 2025. There is also need to develop an NDC Investment Plan in near future to accelerate NDC implementation.
NDCs are central to climate action because they represent the country’s commitment to Paris Agreement and are developed at country level – hence the name “Nationally Determined”. Thus, its not a top-down approach where UN imposes emission reduction targets, but rather a country effort and commitment, determined by the country through stakeholder engagements. Eswatini’s NDC revision process took one year to complete with 44 workshop days and several virtual meetings covering all NDC sectors and almost all relevant stakeholder groups including traditional leaders, persons with disabilities, NGOs, youth and gender groups. Furthermore, NDC work is spearheaded by two ministries, Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs and Ministry of Economic Planning and Development. This is because NDCs are a bridge between the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030. It is now widely recognized and accepted that development is not possible without climate action and vise versa.
Thus NDCs are fully “owned” by the country. Implementation has already begun while we develop implementation and investment plans. Read about how Matsapha town is implementing NDC in this article: https://eswatiniclimate.org/2022/08/15/how-matsapha-town-is-implementing-eswatinis-nationally-determined-contributions-ndc-climate-action-plan/ Having an NDC implementation plan in place will help systematically track implementation and address gaps, whether they are financial or human resource or material.
Support for NDC work is coordinated through the NDC Partnership. The NDC Partnership brings together more than 200 members, including more than 115 countries, both developed and developing, and more than 80 institutions to create and deliver on ambitious climate action that helps achieve the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Governments identify their NDC implementation priorities and the type of support that is needed to translate them into actionable policies and programs. Based on these requests, the membership offers a tailored package of expertise, technical assistance, and funding. This collaborative response provides developing countries with efficient access to a wide range of resources to adapt to and mitigate climate change and foster more equitable and sustainable development. So far Eswatini received technical assistance worth $1.5 million during the NDC revision phase in 2021 and in 2022 received $450,000 worth support for activities requested by the NDC focal ministries and these include a full time Climate Finance Advisor and a Climate Change Economic Advisor, as well as support for an NDC aligned National Development Plan development for Eswatini. The support from NDC Partnership is channeled through their member development partners and in Eswatini’s case these are United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) who are in the country, while many other partners who are based outside the country also supported (Commonwealth Secretariat, World Resources Institute (WRI), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)). Such a collaborative approach needed, because the effects of climate change are far-reaching and interconnected, therefore our response must address this interconnectedness. To conclude, NDCs are the important blueprints for climate action which are determined by countries themselves to help the world achieve the goals of Paris Agreement.
