Currently submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) fall far short of what would be required to keep the rise in the global mean temperature since the start of industrialization well below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C, as agreed upon in the Paris Agreement (PA).
The Global Stocktake (GST) established in Art. 14 of the PA is key to address this problem. Its purpose is to review the implementation of the PA and to “assess the collective progress” towards the collectively agreed goals (UNFCCC 2016, Art. 14.1). The GST thereby establishes a feedback mechanism connecting the short-term climate action at the national level contained in the NDCs with the overall long-term targets of the PA.
The overarching objective of NDC ASPECTS is to provide cutting-edge analysis and robust scientific evidence in support of the 2023 GST under the PA and efforts by countries to upgrade existing NDCs up to 2030, to prepare new NDCs of highest possible ambition for the period beyond 2030, in line with long-term low emission development strategies (LEDS), and to effectively implement these NDCs.
The two-day kick-off meeting for the HORIZON 2020 project was held online on the 26th and 27th of May, 2021. We got to meet all our NDC ASPECTS partners that we are very keen to collaborate with!
HOLISTIC will contribute to the communication, dissemination and exploitation activities providing IT infrastructure to document and make the quantitative modelling results accessible, in a way that maximises the potential for future exploitation of the NDC ASPECTS research results and collected data. HOLISTIC will also support dissemination by developing the visual identity of the project, designing and hosting the project webpage, developing advanced layouts for policy papers and country fiches to inform future NDCs and more.