Nationally Determined Contributions and long-term strategies
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain the NDCs that it intends to achieve. NDCs represent each Party’s national climate change adaptation and mitigation commitments, as well as support needs in terms of capacity-building, technology development and dissemination and finance.
A FAO analysis of NDCs has revealed the critical role of the agriculture and land use sectors in achieving countries’ mitigation and adaptation goals over the next decade and beyond. Overall, 95 percent of countries’ new or updated NDCs include mitigation and/or adaptation goals, targets or actions in the agriculture and land use sectors.
More about NDCs
FAO Member States have publicly pledged to make their NDCs a reality, but this requires planning, investment and cooperation between multiple stakeholders from grass roots to government level. FAO supports its members and partners by strengthening the formulation and implementation of the NDCs with ambitious climate action in the agriculture and land use sectors, particularly linking NDC implementation to National Adaptation Plan and long-term strategies.
The FAO publication, ‘The agricultural sectors in nationally determined contributions (NDCs): Priority areas for international support', outlines key types of support developing countries will require to effectively implement and report on their agricultural sector commitments, and ultimately scale up climate action in the coming years. The sequel, 'Turning Nationally Determined Contributions into action' outlines the related support FAO can offer. FAO has written a series of global- and regional-level reports, analyzing the role of the agriculture and land use sectors in the NDCs and opportunities for NDC enhancement.
FAO has also developed several tools to strengthen countries' capacity to prepare, implement, effectively report and update their NDCs and national adaptation plans:
Partnering to scale up NDC implementation
FAO has been an active partner of the NDC Partnership since its launch in 2016 and is now extensively collaborating on NDC Partnership initiatives and supporting countries in developing, implementing, tracking and revising their NDCs. FAO provided support to 21 countries under the Climate Action Enhancement Package (CAEP) in response to countries’ technical requests to enhance ambition and accelerate implementation of their NDCs in the AFOLU sectors.
In addition, FAO hosts the Secretariat of the Thematic Working Group (TWG) on Agriculture, Food Security and Land Use under the NDC Partnership is a country-led peer to peer network for countries and international organizations to consult one another and to share experiences and challenges related to climate change impacts and the implementation of NDCs in the agriculture sectors. FAO facilitates the TWG together with two co-chairs, Australia and Uruguay. The group now has over 60 members and is open to all interested NDC Partnership member countries and organizations.
Publications
Publications
Regional Analysis of NDCs in Sub-Saharan Africa
2022
46 out of the 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) submitted a first nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention...
Publications
Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in the Near East and North Africa
2022
This report provides a unique, sector-specific synthesis of the agriculture, water and land use sectors in the nationally determined contributions from...
Technical report
Analysis of livestock and pasture sub-sectors for the NDC revision in Kyrgyzstan
2021
The report was published by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) with contributions from IFAD through its Adaptation for...
Publications
2021 (Interim) Global update report: Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Nationally Determined Contributions
2021
The purpose of this update NDC global report is to provide a sector-specific brief of how agriculture and land use are figured within the mitigation...
Publications
A common framework for agriculture and land use in the Nationally Determined Contributions
2020
This paper presents a sector-specific methodology for assessing the role of the AFOLU sector within the NDCs. It identifies five core pillars of NDCs...
Publications
Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in the Caribbean – Synthesis
2020
The main objective of this report is to provide a regional synthesis of the climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in the agriculture...
Publications
Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in Asia
2020
The regional analysis provided in this report reflects the dynamism and diversity existing within Asia. Asia is experiencing dramatic demographic changes,...
Publications
Regional analysis of the nationally determined contributions in Latin America
2020
This report provides a unique, sector-specific synthesis of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from Latin America. It summarizes the substantial...
Publications
Assessing the role of agriculture and land use in Nationally Determined Contributions - A methodology
2019
This paper presents a common framework for synthesizing and analyzing the role of agriculture and land use in the NDCs to facilitate a better understanding...
Publications
Linking Nationally Determined Contributions and the Sustainable Development Goals through Agriculture
2019
This paper identifies potential “climate action-sustainable development pathways” spanning 17 major agricultural climate action categories and the 17...
Publications
Regional analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions of the countries in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia
2019
The main objective of this report is to provide a regional synthesis of the current climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in the agriculture...
Publications
Linking Nationally Determined Contributions and the Sustainable Development Goals through agriculture - 2019
2019
This paper identifies potential “climate action-sustainable development pathways” spanning 17 major agricultural climate action categories and the 17...
Publications
Priorities related to food value chains and the agri-food sector in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
2019
This paper presents a global assessment on how food value chains and the agri-food sector have been considered in the Nationally Determined Contributions,...
Publications
Energy in and from agriculture in the African Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) - A review
2019
This publication presents the key elements of a review of African Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement through the lens of FAO’s...
Publications
Regional Analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions of countries in South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia
2018
The main objective of this report is to provide a regional synthesis of the current climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments in the agriculture...
Publications
Regional analysis Nationally Determined Contributions of Eastern Africa: Executive summary
2017
FAO is proposing a series of regional-level analyses of the NDCs to identify the current commitments, gaps and opportunities in the agriculture sectors...
Publications
Regional analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions of Eastern Africa
2017
Building on FAO’s global study of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the agriculture sectors, the Climate and Environment Division (CBC)...
Publications
Turning Nationally Determined Contributions into action
2017
This brief summarizes FAO’s analysis of NDCs and provides an overview of how the Organization, through policy processes, capacity development and technical...
Publications
Executive Summary: Regional Analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions of Eastern Africa
2017
The agriculture sectors in Eastern Africa represent a pivotal opportunity for simultaneously leveraging the mitigation potential of the region, while...
The agriculture sectors in the intended Nationally Determined Contributions: Analysis
2016
The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) served as a basis for negotiations at COP21 and provided the foundation for the Paris Agreement...