Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are an essential part of the Paris Agreement. Adopted in 2015, the Paris Agreement is an international agreement with the goal of keeping global warming well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with efforts focused on keeping the increase in temperature to 1.5° Celsius. All parties to the Paris Agreement must publish their NDCs, which details each country’s unique climate action plan and how it will contribute to the global effort to address climate change.
Concerning developing countries, the Paris Agreement recognises the principle of ‘Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities’ (CBDR-RC). This principle acknowledges that all countries share a common responsibility to address climate change, but they have different capacities and historical contributions to the issue. The agreement recognises that developed countries should take the lead in reducing emissions and providing financial and technological support to developing countries. The UNFCCC recently released a summary report on the Global Stock Take (GST). The report’s findings indicated that countries are not on track to meet the 1.5° C target set by the Paris Agreement, so as they prepare their next NDCs, which are due in 2025, they must immediately step up their ambition.
With seven partner organisations working with various women’s groups in seven countries — indigenous women in Indonesia, Nepal, and Vietnam; rural women in Kyrgyzstan; women coal pickers in Pakistan; urban impoverished women in the Philippines; and peasant women in Thailand together with APWLD, launched its regional report based on their Climate Justice Feminist Participatory Action Research (CJ FPAR) for NDCs monitoring between 2019 and 2021. Collaborating with grassroots women and their communities, partner organisations from Asia-Pacific countries documented the effects of the climate crisis. Additionally, they recorded the NDC processes and examined its contributions to addressing climate emergencies in ways that promote the human rights of women. The report also talks about the two main gaps that have been identified in NDCs implementation: the ‘emissions gaps’ and the ‘implementation gaps’. This is because certain countries, especially those with high emissions, must take more aggressive steps to drastically reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in order to close the ‘emissions gaps’, and they must also move more quickly to implement national NDC-related policies in order to close the ‘implementation gaps’. However at COP28 taking place in Dubai from 30 November – 12 December 2023, Global Stock Take will evaluate the progress towards collective action for mitigation, adaptation, finance goals as well as NDCs and its achievement.
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