How much will it cost?

This guide from the World Resources Institute explains the importance and methodologies of estimating the costs of implementing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). It outlines how costing helps governments identify financing gaps, select financial instruments, and integrate climate commitments into national fiscal policies, while highlighting the challenges of data gaps and uncertainty.

• Estimating the cost of implementing an NDC is a critical first step for governments to determine the necessary financial instruments and policies, identify the funding gap between mobilized resources and total needs, and understand the amount of external funding required for developing countries.
• Governments use various methodologies to estimate NDC costs since no standard approach exists. These include econometric models for analyzing variable relationships, macroeconomic models for country-specific interactions, Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) for evaluating economic and physical systems, cost-benefit analysis for specific projects, and extrapolation based on existing data from other countries or projects.
• Several countries have applied specific costing approaches: Colombia uses a bottom-up method for adaptation actions, such as calculating costs for the ecological recovery and restoration of 18,000 hectares; South Africa utilized three models (SATIM, SAGE, and a household/job impact model) in its Country and Climate Development Report to analyze the energy-sector transition toward net-zero by 2050; and Indonesia's Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI) integrated climate scenarios through 2045 into its 5-year development plan.
• The process of climate costing faces significant challenges, including a lack of detailed data for specific sectors and geographies, the inherent uncertainty of future climate scenarios, and a shortage of staffing and expertise within many governments.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). How much will it cost? https://www.wri.org/paying-for-paris/how-much-will-it-cost

Chicago

World Resources Institute. How much will it cost? n.d. https://www.wri.org/paying-for-paris/how-much-will-it-cost.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=How much will it cost? |url=https://www.wri.org/paying-for-paris/how-much-will-it-cost |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendhow, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{How much will it cost?}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/paying-for-paris/how-much-will-it-cost}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }