© Jason Houston / WWF-US

Pakistan's Nationally Determined Contributions

A Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts. NDCs are at the heart of the Paris Agreement which aims to hold the global average rise in temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, preferably limiting the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius; thus avoiding the projected rise from 2.9 to 3.4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. Signatories to the Paris Agreement are required to establish NDCs and update these every five years.

What are Pakistan’s NDCs and what is their utility?
In a manner similar to other countries, Pakistan’s ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2016 obligated the national government to submit their NDCs - the mitigatory and adaptive actions that they will take in order to curb the climate crisis to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere within a defined timeline and to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Pakistan’s first NDCs intended to reduce up to 20 per cent of its 2030 projected GHG emissions in all the targeted sectors.,
 
Pakistan’s current NDCs are aligned with the respective policies, plans and sectoral growth targets set by various ministries and other government entities; they represent the overall greenhouse gas emissions profile and future emission projections, by considering both the present and future socio-economic parameters, changes in the demographic dynamics and emerging energy needs; it also describes mitigation and adaptation measures already being implemented in Pakistan and also discusses the prospective challenges.

NDCs 
© Courtesy Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC)

WWF-Pakistan's Role
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© Rob Webster / WWF

WWF-Pakistan has played a key role by holding around more than 90 face to face consultations with stakeholders from the agriculture, forestry, industrial, waste and energy sectors at the provincial level to determine which ongoing or in-pipeline projects contributed towards GHG emissions reduction and climate change adaptation.

These consultations helped to identify current best practices regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation, and delineate proposed plans of action for each sector to enhance the effectiveness of current best practices, introduce new measures that have demonstrated success elsewhere, and recommend interventions to prioritize for Pakistan to meet its NDC targets. 

WWF-Pakistan has also conducted provincial level stakeholders’ consultative workshops to raise NDCs ambition and to discuss how each key sector can benefit from implementing climate action plans. More than that, these consultations acclimatized and created awareness amongst the relevant sectors about NDCs and subsequently increased the acceptance for the implementation of mitigation and adaptation actions mentioned within the document.

It also highlighted the key challenges faced at each level that hinders the smooth implementation of climate oriented actions and also the recommendations on policies, finance and communications that can overcome these barriers on the current practices, the targets set within the current NDCs and their achievability.