SCALING UP AMBITION: LEVERAGING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS

This working paper, produced as an input for the G20 Climate and Sustainability Working Group, examines how G20 nations can leverage Long-Term Strategies (LTSs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to meet Paris Agreement goals. It argues that integrating long-term visions with near-term targets drives sustainable economic growth and provides a roadmap to avoid carbon-intensive lock-in. The document provides frameworks for NDC implementation, guidance for updating NDCs by 2020, and strategies for G20 countries to support developing nations in overcoming capacity and financing gaps.

• Ambitious climate action is projected to provide substantial global economic and health benefits by 2030, including the potential to generate US$26 trillion in economic benefits, create 65 million new jobs, and prevent 700,000 premature deaths caused by air pollution.
• G20 countries collectively account for approximately 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but they are not currently on track to meet their 2030 NDCs. To achieve their unconditional NDCs, G20 members must implement additional policies to reduce emissions by 2.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, or 3.5 gigatons for conditional NDCs.
• Long-Term Strategies (LTSs) and NDCs are interdependent tools: LTSs provide a mid-century vision that prevents the 'lock-in' of carbon-intensive infrastructure and informs near-term decisions, while robust NDC implementation aligns immediate actions with those long-term goals and sustainable development objectives.
• Effective NDC implementation requires a stable governance framework, including a national oversight body, independent regulators, and a legal basis such as binding mandates to ensure coordination across ministries and sustainability across political cycles.
• To enhance NDCs by 2020, countries can adopt various sectoral strategies: in buildings, replacing high global warming potential HFCs; in energy, increasing renewable capacity and storage; in agriculture, reducing food waste by 50% by 2030; and in transport, developing electromobility frameworks.
• Developing countries face three primary barriers to advancing NDCs and LTSs: capacity and coordination gaps (particularly cross-ministry coordination), a critical need to prioritize adaptation due to immediate climate impacts, and significant difficulties in accessing international climate finance.
• The G20 can support non-G20 countries by addressing institutional capacity gaps, helping turn NDCs into concrete implementation plans, and mobilizing financial resources to meet conditional NDC targets.
• Mobilizing private capital is essential for system transitions; the document notes that over 90 percent of renewable energy investment in 2016 was privately financed. G20 countries can catalyze this by using public funds to de-risk investments and providing clear long-term policy signals.

APA

VENER, J., FRANSEN, T., LEVIN, K., BAUMWOLL, J., ELLIOTT, C., & ROSS, K. (2019). SCALING UP AMBITION: LEVERAGING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/scaling-up-ambition.pdf

Chicago

VENER, JAMES, TARYN FRANSEN, KELLY LEVIN, JENNIFER BAUMWOLL, CYNTHIA ELLIOTT, and KATHERINE ROSS. SCALING UP AMBITION: LEVERAGING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/scaling-up-ambition.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=VENER |first1=JAMES |last2=FRANSEN |first2=TARYN |last3=LEVIN |first3=KELLY |last4=BAUMWOLL |first4=JENNIFER |last5=ELLIOTT |first5=CYNTHIA |last6=ROSS |first6=KATHERINE |title=SCALING UP AMBITION: LEVERAGING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=June 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/scaling-up-ambition.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vener2019scaling, author = {VENER, JAMES and FRANSEN, TARYN and LEVIN, KELLY and BAUMWOLL, JENNIFER and ELLIOTT, CYNTHIA and ROSS, KATHERINE}, title = {{SCALING UP AMBITION: LEVERAGING NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS AND LONG-TERM STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOALS}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = jun, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/scaling-up-ambition.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }