SYNTHESIS BRIEF

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) provides a suite of tools and analyses to help countries meet their Paris Agreement commitments. Key research highlights include the potential for NDCs to include fossil fuel production phase-downs, the need for better guidance on the 'enhanced transparency framework', and the importance of 'fair shares' in achieving a 1.5°C limit. SEI's technical tools, such as LEAP for energy planning, the NDC Explorer for tracking ambitions, and the NDC-SDG Connections tool, aim to bridge the gap between climate science and national policy. Specific country analyses show that Kenya requires significant investment for low-carbon energy pathways, while sub-Saharan African nations could better leverage private sector investment for agricultural adaptation.

• Countries could use NDCs to set targets for phasing down fossil fuel production and report actions such as removing subsidies or introducing production taxes, though currently, fossil fuel supply is not a central focus in most NDCs. India is the only top ten fossil-fuel-producing nation whose NDC mentions a policy to restrict supply via a coal tax.
• The 'enhanced transparency framework' under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement faces challenges due to a lack of detailed guidance on NDC features, which makes reporting and reviewing difficult because intended NDCs are largely heterogeneous.
• To maintain environmental integrity in international emissions trading under Article 6, policy-makers should limit the eligibility of certified emission reductions (CERs) to new projects that are additional or existing projects at risk of discontinuing abatement to prevent 'double counting'.
• Analysis of 'fair shares' for a 1.5°C limit indicates that wealthier countries' mitigation pledges fall far short of their fair-share contributions; for example, the United States pledges at most 24% and the European Union 23% of their respective fair shares.
• Kenya's target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 requires a low-carbon energy development pathway that will necessitate extensive financial investment and significant demands on energy sector governance.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, private sector involvement in agricultural adaptation is currently seen in projects that use public finance to raise awareness, hire private actors for services, or leverage private investment, but more clarity on desired private actor types is needed to scale up investment.
• The NDC Explorer tool reveals that while many countries set renewable energy targets, very few (as few as 4) include agriculture as a priority area in their NDCs, and poorer countries tend to focus more on adaptation and conditional mitigation targets.

APA

Yehle, E., Klein, R. J., Atteridge, A., Barrott, J., Broekhoff, D., De Lorenzo, L., Dzebo, A., Johnson, F. X., Kartha, S., Piggot, G., Pravalprukskul, P., Salamanca, A., Schneider, L., Swartling, Å. G., van Asselt, H., & Verkuijl, C. (2017). SYNTHESIS BRIEF. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-SB-2017-analysis-and-tools-for-NDCs.pdf

Chicago

Yehle, Emily, Richard J.T. Klein, Aaron Atteridge, Julia Barrott, Derik Broekhoff, Luca De Lorenzo, Adis Dzebo, et al. SYNTHESIS BRIEF. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2017. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-SB-2017-analysis-and-tools-for-NDCs.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{yehle2017synthesis, author = {Yehle, Emily and Klein, Richard J.T. and Atteridge, Aaron and Barrott, Julia and Broekhoff, Derik and De Lorenzo, Luca and Dzebo, Adis and Johnson, Francis X. and Kartha, Sivan and Piggot, Georgia and Pravalprukskul, Pin and Salamanca, Albert and Schneider, Lambert and Swartling, Åsa Gerger and van Asselt, Harro and Verkuijl, Cleo}, title = {{SYNTHESIS BRIEF}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-SB-2017-analysis-and-tools-for-NDCs.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }