Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are the key to successful climate talks: Ecology Report

Climate Change has been an issue that has persisted for a long time but is now taken seriously by all after repeated warnings by scientists. Severe weather events have been persisting in this year like the extreme floods in Brazil and East Africa, droughts in Mexico and Europe to wildfires in Canada. 

Climate Change and NDCs – What are they?

Although these alarming events have caused a lot of commotion among the climatologists and scientific community, there is still hope to save the world from impending doom. 

According to researchers, the threat of climate change can be halted and solved by creating periodic reports and evaluating the progress results. Countries periodically report on the plans and progress in bringing down national levels of the planet-warming greenhouse gases containing carbon emissions. These reports are generally termed as nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs for short.

What are Net Zero Emissions?

To limit the effects of extreme weather events and Climate change, the carbon emissions need to be reduced and ultimately nullified. For the same reason, all the member countries of the United Nations took a decision to fully attain Net Zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. This decision was taken under the 2015 Paris Agreement talks.

NDCs, United Nations and the road to Net Zero Emissions 

NDCs are reports that describe national policies and decisions to reach toward net zero emissions. The NDCs were updated every 5 years until delegates at the 2021 UN climate summit or the COP 26 held at Glasgow shortened the updates time limit to  every 2 years.

These reports help all the countries attached to the United Nations coordinate their climate policies and results with each other so that they can keep track with the individual and global climate goals.

According to official reports, 93 percent of the Global Gross Domestic Product covered by the world targets, are on the road towards net zero emissions but plenty of action is still required to achieve the target result.

Recent and Upcoming NDC Talks 

The next round of NDC updates are right around the corner, to be held this coming February 2025 although there are some countries who discussed the reports at the UN General Assembly held in New York on Sept 16, 2024. Other countries can disclose their reports during the upcoming UN Climate Summit or the COP 29 held in Azerbaijan.