The COVID-19 pandemic is making it difficult to ensure the quality, ambition, and revision timeline of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term strategies (LTSs). Additional challenges arise around collecting and validating data, maintaining communications and decision-making processes, and convening the stakeholders needed to bring about the requested climate commitments.
Safeguarding the health and livelihoods of citizens currently is a top priority. At the same time, avoiding future pandemics and restarting economic activity must be thought together. Climate and biodiversity protection as well as sustainable development patterns must be an integral part of the recovery process. Against this background, it will be crucial that the often short- and in some cases medium-term stimulus packages to ignite economies are aligned with medium- and long-term objectives set in the NDCs and as such must follow sustainable long-term development pathways. By setting ambitious long-term targets and using the 2030 Agenda as a compass out of the crisis, countries will be able to avoid stranded assets while boosting progress on climate, biodiversity and development goals.
This brief looks at COVID-19 responses related to NDC updating and LTS development. It further compiles the latest “green” stimulus measures and propositions by governments, multilateral organisations, academia, civil society, and other actors at the national and international level on what a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient recovery from the pandemic could look like.