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As part of the Paris Agreement, countries are mandated to update and enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years — increasing their ambition with every cycle. The first round of NDCs were submitted starting in 2015 as intended nationally determined contributions and countries have submitted or are finalizing their updates for the new cycle in 2020/2021. The purpose of this report was to develop a methodology to systematically assess the design of NDCs and to apply it to 20 NDCs. Main findings: While there are several tools that analyze NDCs, they are comprehensive...

This report is the third and the latest edition of the series since 2018 that take stock of climate action by cities, regions and businesses and their global aggregate impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The 2021 edition focuses on the progress of non-state and subnational actors toward their emissions reduction targets. Main findings: In this report, we focus on subnational and non-state action in ten major emitting economies: Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union (EU-27) plus the United Kingdom (UK), India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States (US). We find that...

The information provided within this study shall serve as a basis for tackling barriers in introducing "Green Public Procurement" as well as updating procurement criteria of room air conditioners in order to reduce cooling related energy consumption and GHG emissions of public buildings. Main findings: Green Cooling has a high potential to reduce costs, energy and the climate impact of public buildings. Surveys conducted in multiple countries in the framework of this study show that: Air conditioning in public buildings is often responsible for about 50% of total electricity consumption and...

This study aims to obtain enhanced understanding of subnational (e.g. cities and subnational regions) and non-state (e.g. companies) actors’ action on GHG emissions reductions in the European Union (EU). Specifically, we present an overview of findings in the recent literature on (i) landscape of sub/non-state action, (ii) interactions between EU policy making and sub/non-state actors, (iii) potential GHG emissions reductions additional to the reductions expected under national policies, and (iv) progress towards their own short- to mid-term targets and long-term goals. This report focuses on...

This article quantifies the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions resulting from the full implementation of major international cooperative initiatives’ (ICIs) goals. We develop criteria to select the most significant ICIs to aggregate, and propose novel methodologies to quantify emission reduction impacts and account for overlaps between them. The analysis was conducted for 17 initiatives, across eight sectors and ten major emitting economies accounting for roughly two-thirds of global GHG emissions in 2019. ICIs are international activities outside the UNFCCC driven by cities...