Enhancing ambition levels in nationally determined contributions-Learning from Technology Needs Assessments

摘要

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are to develop nationally determined contributions(NDCs) every 5 years, outlining their climate targets and plans. In order toease this task, countries may use the experiences with the Technology NeedsAssessment (TNA) program. In this paper, lessons with TNAs since 2001 aredescribed, and it is analyzed how countries, with a focus on developing countries,may use these lessons in strengthening and implementing their successive NDCs.While some developing countries have already used the results of their TNA processin their NDC development, countries could benefit from following the TNAprocess, its stakeholder involvement, and the multi-criteria decision analysis(MCDA) methodology, to strengthen their NDCs. Countries face challenges intheir NDC with regard to the embedding of the contribution into the national developmentstrategy, getting from plans to implementation, and the mobilization offinance. Through the positive and negative experiences with TNAs, countries canovercome these challenges. It is argued that all countries can use the TNA or partsthereof in their NDC process. For developing countries (mainly Least DevelopedCountries and Small Island Developing States) the TNA is useful for capacitybuilding, strategy development, and the preparation of projects for investment withinternational support. Emerging markets and newly-industrialized countries can usethe TNA as a participatory approach for strategy development. Developed countriesgenerally do not need the entire TNA process, but the participatory approachesand MCDA can be used to fine-tune modeled strategies.