INDCs, Take 3

The report analyzes the land-sector climate pledges (INDCs) of four major tropical-forest nations. It finds that while Brazil and Indonesia provide some transparency, their land-sector ambitions are low. India's submission lacks critical specifics on GDP and sequestration timing. In contrast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is highlighted as a model for both transparency and ambition, despite its limited national capacity. The author concludes that smaller countries are generally producing better land-sector INDCs than larger emitters.

• Brazil's INDC is praised for its transparency and clear quantitative targets, including a goal to reduce emissions by 37 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, but is criticized for low land-sector ambition. The plan focuses only on achieving "zero illegal deforestation by 2030" specifically within the "Brazilian Amazonia", ignoring other biomes like the Cerrado and Mata Atlantica.
• Indonesia is identified as the world's leading emitter from deforestation, forest degradation, and peat swamp clearing, with the land sector accounting for 63 percent of its total global warming gases. Its INDC lacks specific targets for reducing these activities and does not clarify if existing bans on peat clearance and primary forest clearing will continue.
• India's INDC is characterized by a lack of specific data, making it impossible to calculate absolute emission reductions because the estimated 2030 GDP is missing. Additionally, it is unclear if the goal of creating a carbon sink of "2.53 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent" is an annual or cumulative target through 2030.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is cited as having the best land-sector INDC among the four analyzed countries. It proposes a 17 percent reduction in emissions relative to business-as-usual (BAU) by 2030, provides clear sector-specific costs for mitigation ($12.5 billion) and adaptation ($9 billion), and includes a quantified reforestation goal of 3 million hectares by 2025.

APA

Boucher, D. (2015). INDCs, Take 3. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/ucs-land-sector-indcs-take-3-2015.pdf

Chicago

Boucher, Doug. INDCs, Take 3. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2015. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/ucs-land-sector-indcs-take-3-2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Boucher |first1=Doug |title=INDCs, Take 3 |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=November 2015 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/ucs-land-sector-indcs-take-3-2015.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{boucher2015indcs, author = {Boucher, Doug}, title = {{INDCs, Take 3}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2015}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/ucs-land-sector-indcs-take-3-2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }