THE DEADLINE FOR THE THIRD ROUND OF NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING, LOSS AND DAMAGE MUST BE INCLUDED

The deadline for Parties (countries) to update their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) is the 10th of February 2025. Here is a quick introduction to what NDCs are, why Loss and Damage must be included and some useful guides on how to do so.

WHAT IS AN NDC?

NDCs are national climate action plans made by each country under the Paris Agreement. A country's NDC outlines how it plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help meet the global goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C , adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and address the loss and damage that could not, or was not avoided through mitigation and adaptation efforts .

The Paris Agreement requires NDCs to be updated every five years —by 2020, 2025, 2030, etc.— with increasingly higher ambition, taking into consideration each country’s capacity. The NDCs to be submitted in 2025, which is the third round of submissions (NDCs 3.0) are to be informed by the outcome of the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement which took place at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.

ARE CURRENT NDCS AMBITIOUS ENOUGH?

No. Current NDCs are nowhere near ambitious enough to match the scale of the rapidly escalating climate crisis. The actions outlined in existing NDCs are on track for a catastrophic 2.5-2.9°C of warming by 2100. This is why NDCs 3.0 need to be much more ambitious than current NDCs, especially as this may be the last opportunity to put the world on track with a global emission trajectory in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to the 1.5°C survival limit.

WHY MUST LOSS AND DAMAGE BE INCLUDED IN NDCs?

Averting, minimising and addressing, loss and damage needs to be recognised as an indicator of progress on climate action. Simply put, we should see the scale of loss and damage and the related needs decreasing as efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the climate crisis ramp up. To assess this we need to see Loss and Damage included in NDCs. Without doing so we risk not knowing the true scale of the loss and damage that developing countries and the front lines communities within them face and what they actually need, in terms of finance, technical assistance etc., to deal with it.

WHAT LOSS AND DAMAGE CONTRIBUTIONS AND COMMITMENTS SHOULD DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES BE INCLUDED IN THEIR NDCS?

From developing countries we would like to hear what Loss and Damage plans they would like to put in place and what the related Loss and Damage finance and technical assistance needs are.

Whereas from developed countries we should be hearing what commitments —including Loss and Damage finance— they will be making to support developing countries to undertake mitigation, adaptation and to address Loss and Damage. This is evermore important following the inadequate outcome on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) at COP29, in response to which developing countries have highlighted that the NCQG will be insufficient to enable them to meet their NDC contributions.

When looking specifically at Loss and Damage, increased ambition in developed countries NDCs, is urgently needed to massively scale up Loss and Damage finance so that the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage, Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage can start to approach meeting the needs of developed countries.

DO WE HAVE EXAMPLES OF NDCS THAT INCLUDE LOSS AND DAMAGE?

Vanuatu's Revised and Enhanced NDC is an excellent example of how developing countries can include Loss and Damage commitments in their NDC 3.0 submission (see page 35). Within their NDC, Vanuatu has outlined commitments to address loss and damage (e.g. establishing a mechanism to assess and redress #LossAndDamage) and also related Loss and Damage finance that they require to deliver on these contributions (US$ 177 million).

WHAT GUIDANCE IS THERE ON INCLUDING LOSS AND DAMAGE IN NDCS?

Currently, there is no formal guidance from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on how to incorporate Loss and Damage into NDCs like the guidance provided for adaptation. However there are a number of useful guides that have been developed by civil society organisations and networks that we can recommend. These include:

1. This new report from Christian Aid, “Turning the Tide: Policy Paper Embedding Loss and Damage in the next generation of NDCS” (access the spanish version here).
   
2. This report from WWF and Practical Action, “Why loss and damage must feature strongly in NDCs”.
   
3. The IIED report “Harnessing Nationally Determined Contributions to tackle Loss and Damage in least developed countries”; and;
   
4. This briefing from Climate Action Network International (CAN-I), “Guidelines for NDCs 3.0: Delivering on the GST outcome and beyond”; and;
5. This brief from La Ruta del Clima which provides specific recommendations for Latin American countries, “Loss and Damage in a Latin American Context: Summary of Data in NDCs”.

We also strongly recommend the following NDC resources to better understand how Loss and Damage features in NDCs and who has submitted NDCs for the current round:

1. This University College London report details how Loss and Damage featured in the last round of NDCs, “Loss and Damage in Nationally Determined Contributions” and see the follow up analysis here; and
2. To see each country's NDC and who has already submitted ahead of the 2025 deadline visit the UNFCCC’s NDC registry.