Background
The actions and ambitions provided in each country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) provide a strong measure of whether the world will achieve the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement. These goals are: to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C, to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C and, to increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development.
An assessment of actions in the NDCs submitted so far indicate that current actions are still not ambitious enough to keep global temperature increase to well below 2°C. There is a need to enhance current NDCs and accelerate the scale and pace of climate action globally in order to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Although Pacific Island Countries’ (PICs) contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions are insignificant, a transition to a low carbon economy is the path needed for overall sustainable development. This will furthermore increase climate change resilience, which is important as the Pacific is one of the regions experiencing the most severe impacts of global warming. PICs’ NDCs present an important avenue to achieve both goals.
However, for some PICs, the development of INDCs was hurried to meet the deadline before the Paris COP21 in 2015. This process means that for many PICs their NDCs do not include significant sources of emissions or emission reduction opportunities, such as transport, forestry, waste, agriculture and oceans. Enhancing Pacific NDCs through including actions to mitigate emissions in these sectors also has the potential to provide significant social and economic benefits and enhance resilience more broadly. Implementation of the existing NDCs and future enhanced NDCs will require an embedded, whole-of-government approach that helps translate NDC targets into detailed and well-understood national investment plans and align them to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The NDC Hub was first envisaged at the inaugural Climate Action Pacific Partnership (CAPP) Conference, held in Fiji, July 2017. Here, leaders and ministers from PICs raised the need for a regional NDC platform or mechanism to support PICs in enhancing and implementing their NDCs. Many discussions followed, and at the NDC Partnership high-level event on November 14, 2017, the Hon. Prime Minister of Fiji and President of COP 23 formally launched the Regional Pacific NDC Hub.
The NDC Hub follows a demand-driven approach, responding directly to requests from countries relating to the following outputs:
- NDCs reviewed and enhanced
- Roadmaps and investment plans developed to support NDC implementation
- Finance leveraged to support NDC implementation through improved regional coordination
- Guidance and technical assistance provided, and tools produced to streamline and integrate NDCs into national and regional plans and processes
- NDC related information and knowledge, learning and partnership mechanisms enhanced to support NDC enhancement, implementation and monitoring
A core team of long-term experts will deliver demand-driven technical assistance as part of the NDC Hub Implementation Unit. Short-term experts will be contracted as required to supplement the skills and knowledge of the core team based on country requests. The Regional Technical Support Mechanism (RTSM) will be strengthened and utilised as a service delivery mechanism for requests, based at SPREP in Samoa. The NDC Hub will utilise a range of technical assistance delivery modalities in line with the specific needs and requirements of countries. Given the diversity of the PICs and their respective capacities, this approach will ensure assistance can be tailored to meet individual needs.
In strengthening the resilience of PICs and promoting low carbon development, the Regional Pacific NDC Hub will also complement other actions taken under the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP) – in particular Goal 2 – Low Carbon Development. The NDC Hub will be affiliated to the Pacific Resilience Partnership (PRP), the regional governance mechanism for the FRDP, to strengthen coordination and complementarity of actions to promote low carbon development.