The nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of the United States and China to the Paris Agreement on climate change have been posted to a United Nations website. The NDCs appear to be identical to the nations’ intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) submitted last year ahead of the December negotiations that led to the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement, the first global climate change accord, establishes a legally binding framework under which nations work to achieve commitments determined at the domestic level. The ultimate intention is to limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, and to 1.5 degrees if possible.
Nearly 200 countries submitted INDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) prior to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in December 2015 in Paris. The INDCs offered a rough idea of what countries could do at the national level to reduce greenhouse gasses.
Once a nation formally joins the Paris Agreement, the INDCs then become NDCs – unless a country, having seen the actual agreement, submits a new NDC. The United States and China, which formally joined the agreement Saturday, appear to not to have made any adjustments.
The U.S. in its NDC committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
China has committed to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, to max out carbon emissions around 2030 while making efforts to peak earlier, and to increase the share of non-fossil-fueled power generation in the country to approximately 20 percent.
These NDCs are only the first round, as the Paris Agreement includes a “ratcheting” mechanism that requires participating countries to revisit their NDCs every five years and increase their ambition.
