Nairobi, 24 January 2020 - UN-Habitat has been formally welcomed as an institutional member of the NDC Partnership (NDCP), the largest global coalition to support countries implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - under the Paris Agreement.
The co-chairs of the NDCP Mr. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Minister of Environment and Energy of the Republic of Costa Rica, and Ms. Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands welcomed UN-Habitat as the latest member.
Nationally Determined Contributions are the means by which countries cement their commitments to climate action under the Paris Agreement. They are submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), ideally raising national ambition continuously very five years. A UN-Habitat analysis shows that sustainable urban develop is an integral part of countries’ climate commitments, but requires strengthening to capture the full potential that low-carbon and resilient cities can yield for ambitious national climate action.
The NDC Partnership (NDCP) is a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development. Members of the NDCP collectively support participating national governments in enhancing policy and strategy, aligning budget and investment decisions with climate commitments, supporting in monitoring and evaluation processes and organizing information exchanges.
For example, UN-Habitat has supported a small number of countries in revising and integrating urban development into their initial NDC back in 2015. To date, the is involved in a handful of processes to strengthen the urban content of NDCs, and is developing a short guide as resource for member states to systematically integrate human settlements.
Aiming to enhance vertical and horizontal integration of climate action, UN-Habitat is also integrating NDC work in technical cooperation – for example through our Urban-Low Emission Development Strategies (Urban-LEDS) project, UN-Habitat works with cities and national governments in Lao PDR, Rwanda and Colombia to align city climate strategies with NDCs, and supporting the enhancement of effective systems for multi-level governance, and through our membership in the partnership, we are looking to increase this support continuously.
Joining the NDC Partnership will help to strengthen this work further and help to ensure that the crucial driver of urbanisation is harnessed for effective climate action. 2020 is a crucial year for global climate action, with countries reviewing and re-submitting their NDC commitments in order to “ratchet-up” ambition in order to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. UN-Habitat looks forward to working with member states and the NDCP to make this a year that is remembered for its ambitious climate action commitments.
