Based on experiences in several countries, this paper formulates six key lessons learnt for the assessment of sustainable development impacts and their integration into climate policy making. The lessons focus on technical as well as political aspects and include recommendations for future work in this area to support ambition raising and sustainable development through robust evidence.

This working paper discusses political economy analysis (PEA), a structured approach to analysing sector politics which has been used and studied especially in the realm of development support. We investigate whether looking at sector transitions through a PEA-lens will allow us to see which political factors are at play when determining ambitious climate policy. Understanding how these political dynamics determine which outcomes are feasible and which are not, will contribute towards a better understanding of NDC ambition.

The Fitness Framework presented here is a tool with the potential to add value over existing approaches to assessing climate ambition and action, by explicitly taking stakeholders and their behaviour into account, and building on that to explain why change is more or less likely to happen (this likelihood is what we call ‘fitness’). It aims to provide a structure for analysing the political economy of ambition raising, using concepts familiar to climate and development experts. This is a work in progress.

This paper takes a closer look at energy security and how it relates to ambitious climate policy. It aims to help the reader think more clearly about energy security as a co-benefit in the context of increasing climate ambition. To structure energy security topics for those involved in NDC planning and implementation, we present 10 themes on the interface between energy security and ambitious climate policy, as a starting point for identifying co-benefits, NDC support, and choosing the ‘highest possible ambition’ for NDC updates.

The NDC Update Report tracks the progress on the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The theme of this report is the role of long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LTSs) in achieving the Paris Agreement goal. This report argues for the importance of developing long-term (sector) strategies to determine the highest possible ambition for the coming NDC update (until 2030) and to signal a clear path for future NDC ambition raising (towards net-zero in 2050). Governments can use the NDC update to signal that indeed the highest possible ambition needs to lead to decarbonisation by 2050 or shortly thereafter.

This paper develops a qualitative assessment framework that allows policy makers to understand the complexity of power sector transformation and to analyse their country’s position in the transformation process, including key challenges impacting the integration of vRES and examples for technically feasible solutions.

This research paper explores how evidence on co-benefits has positively influenced climate policy ambition, through three case studies, a review of academic literature, and interviews with experts.

The paper formulates 10 points for mitigation ambition and includes recommendations on ways to support ambition raising through international cooperation.

The NDC Update Report tracks the progress on the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The theme of this special edition is “sector decarbonisation pathways”. To reach the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, most countries will need to reduce emissions to net-zero in 2050 or shortly thereafter. We consider this challenge from a sector perspective, examining decarbonisation from several different angles.

The NDC Update Report tracks the progress on the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The theme of this edition is “Ambition”: We look ahead and explore whether governments are ready for the next round of pledges and where support and preparation could focus.

In this special edition of the NDC Update Report, we focus on the relationship between Nationally Deter-mined Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and explore how climate and development actions can support each other.

The NDC Update Report tracks the progress on the implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The theme of this edition is “Progress”: we critically analyse perceptions on the NDC implementation progress among national and sector experts involved in NDC processes in emerging and developing countries.

This report is the prologue to a series of update reports on NDC-related topics. It critically looks at recent developments around NDC implementation and presents the findings of a survey carried out among government representatives and practitioners working on NDC implementation.