#KnowYourNDCs: Understanding the NDC’s: An Overview of the Nigerian Perspectives — By Chiagozie Udeh
By: Iccdi Africa
Tags: Renewable Energy, Paris Agreement, Nigeria, Wash, Climate Change

The NDC is the voluntary Nationally Determined Contributions pledged by Parties to Paris Agreement as their own commitment to cutting emissions and achieving the under 1.5°c target. It is important that we talk about it in Nigeria as it’s the national policy plan that will drive climate action in Nigeria in line with the goals of Paris Agreement and the pledge of our government. There is also a huge knowledge gap in the country on what the NDCs are and how to meaningfully engage the government on that highlighting the importance of raising awareness about the NDC.

Ministers and lead diplomats huddle to resolve a dispute at Cop23 in Bonn, 2017 (Photo: IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth)

Article 4, paragraph 2 of Paris Agreement requires Parties to prepare, communicate & maintain successive Nationally Determined Contributions NDCs which it wants to achieve. Using the NDCs, citizens can hold the government accountable for their climate commitments. The country pledges towards meeting the Paris Agreement are known as NDCs. Currently, parties are asked to submit an updated NDC every 5 years. Submissions are ongoing for 2020 and every 5 years afterwards (e.g. by 2025, 2030). NDCs contain the post-2020 climate action plans of countries highlighting why it is crucial to have the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP) fully agreed for robust implementation. Monitoring and accountability.

INDC was a compromise document for the “Quantified Emissions Limitation & Reduction Objectives” (QUELROs) & “Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions” (NAMAs) used in Kyoto Protocol to categorize the distinction between legal obligations of developed & developing countries. The INDC was the intended GHG emissions cut that Parties to UNFCCC were requested to publish during the COP19 in Warsaw. Countries prepared their INDCs and submitted in the lead up to COP21 where the Paris Agreement was made. INDC became the 1st Nationally Determined Contributions NDC of a country once it ratified the Paris Agreement unless it decided to submit a new NDC at that time. So, for e.g, Nigeria’s NDC today was the INDC submitted ahead of COP21. For countries that haven’t ratified the Paris Agreement, they are still stock with INDC while those that ratified have the Nationally Determined Contributions NDCs. The Nationally Determined Contributions NDCs are then updated every 5 years expectedly with more ambition.

Once NDCs are approved and submitted to UNFCCC, they’re ready for implementation nationally. For NDCs to be successfully implemented especially in developing countries like Nigeria, sufficient political will is required to meet the targets. There is a great need to mainstream other national climate related strategies already existing (e.g National Adaptation Plans) into the NDCs to ensure a robust implementation and amplify focused approach. It’s important to disaggregate the NDCs into sectoral strategies to have a more targeted approach. An inter-ministerial committee on climate change will be handy here. It must involve multistakeholder approaches to earn true adoption by the country. One thing that has been evident in some developing countries is that the NDC implementation is left to be funded by foreign intervention but this has to change, it has to be part of the national budget and tailored to national needs.

Just like the Paris Agreement that mandates it, some parts of the Nationally Determined Contributions NDCs (procedural ones) are legally binding and others, especially the most important parts, are not. Things like successive updates and submission of NDCs are binding but the ambition and concrete implementation or financial commitments are not and that weakens it a bit. That leaves ambition entirely to national decision. However, the commitments made by countries on its NDCs can be binding depending on how the citizens hold the government accountable. Growing climate litigation especially in the global South show that NDCs will be a new weapon that will enable activists call govt attention to its commitments and demand they are met especially when it ties into another international convention or agreement that the country is signatory to e.g human rights convention, rights of the child etc. Naturally, a well consulted NDC will carry that binding flare because all stakeholders will have it in their consciousness that this was agreed and has to be done

There has been some progress on some commitments made on Nigeria’s NDC especially regarding the increase in the Renewable Energy profile of the country but it is quite unclear how this link directly to the emission reduction target of the NDC. For the much I know, there is currently no concrete tracking mechanism for the NDCs in Nigeria and this provides an opportunity for CSOs to engage the government and propose some tracking strategies to ensure implementation is supervised. There is the NDC Support project of the United Nations Development Programme though which provides some helpful information as can be seen here https://bit.ly/3fBu8fZ but doesn’t solve the tracking needs. There needs to be enough update on the process of NDCs and timelines by the government to improve how the public plans their engagement in the process or their programmes

It is quite impressive to see that Rwanda has met the goal of submitting a revised NDC in 2020. However, we are not late. It is important that the NDC in Nigeria has sufficient public engagement in a multistakeholder format to ensure that it is inclusive of all sectors of the country. The INDC submission was largely rushed and lacked any form of critical public engagement missing crucial inputs from important stakeholders. We have an opportunity to correct that now. Government must lead in this process and should be as open as possible to any collaboration that will enhance or contribute positively to the NDCs. No group should be left behind. Youths should be very involved in the national processes of developing the updated NDCs, that will be key in getting youth priorities into national processes. A study by Brooking Institutes, published in Dec 2019, found that national climate strategies are forgetting about girls, children, and youth. The study posits that “more than half of NDCs failed to mention children, youth, or future generations” “Of the 42% that did reference children, the majority positioned children as a vulnerable group. Only seven NDCs actually positioned children as stakeholders to be included in climate decision making and action” It is crucial that youth and climate education are reflected in the NDC in very strategic ways. Climate Education is crucial and happy to see Italy’s leadership on it. This, as a component of ACE, should have youths at the centre nationally.

This is a tweet-chat series on #ClimateWednesday — #KnowYourNDCs