NewClimate Institute staff prepared the process guidance paper entitled ‘Process guidance for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)’ for the International Partnership on Mitigation and MRV. This process guidance paper is based on early experiences of some countries and the international debate on INDCs and seeks to assist country governments in the preparation of their INDCs.

The Conference of the Parties (COP 19) in Warsaw decided to “initiate or intensify domestic preparations for their intended nationally determined contributions” so that they can be submitted well in advance of the Meeting of Parties to the UNFCCC in Paris; by March 2015 for Parties ready to do so. INDCs put forward by countries will form a key input to the negotiations leading towards the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

This process guidance paper describes an iterative process which integrates two parallel approaches of a politically driven and a technically driven process. In order to develop ambitious and realistic INDCs, countries can best narrow down what is the ‘threshold of pain’ through repeating the process of preparing an INDC, assessing, reviewing, implementing and accounting it. This paper can be used when the process is initiated, but can also be applied to individual steps in the process.

This publication has received support by the International Climate initiative by German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) in the framework of its International Climate Initiative (IKI). The concepts expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the German government, or the endorsement of any approach described herein.