NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution)
A country’s climate action plan under the Paris Agreement, setting emissions targets and measures, updated every five years with progressively higher ambition.
Article 4 of the 2015 Paris Agreement requires each party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive Nationally Determined Contributions. Targets are set nationally, not negotiated, but each new NDC should represent a progression beyond the previous one and reflect the highest possible ambition.
NDCs use several target types:
- Absolute reductions against a base year (EU: at least 55% net below 1990 by 2030; the EU 2035 NDC sets a 66.25–72.5% range)
- Intensity targets per unit of GDP (India: 45% below 2005 emissions intensity by 2030)
- Peaking targets (China: CO2 peak before 2030; its 2035 NDC pledges a 7–10% cut from peak)
- Reductions below a business-as-usual baseline, common among developing countries
- Sectoral targets, for example 50% non-fossil electricity capacity
The 2023 Global Stocktake found the world off track and called for tripling renewable capacity and doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030. The third round, NDC 3.0 with 2035 targets, was due in 2025. The UNFCCC synthesis indicated that full implementation of submitted NDCs would cut 2035 emissions about 10–17% below 2019, far short of the roughly 60% needed for 1.5°C, implying 2.3–2.8°C of warming this century under current pledges (UNEP Emissions Gap 2024–2025).
Related terms
All terms →- Net zero
A state in which anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period, so net additions to the atmosphere are zero.
- Carbon budget
The cumulative amount of CO2 that can still be emitted while keeping global warming below a given limit with a stated probability.
- Carbon price
A cost applied per tonne of CO2e emitted, through a carbon tax or an emissions trading system, so that the climate damage of emissions enters market prices.
- Emissions Trading System (ETS)
A cap-and-trade market in which a regulator caps total emissions, issues tradable allowances, and requires covered installations to surrender one allowance per tonne emitted.