LEADING ON AMBITION: OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM

The document argues that while individual CVF countries have low emissions, their collective impact is significant, equivalent to the world's fifth largest emitter. It provides a 'menu of options' for updating NDCs across key sectors—energy, transport, forests, and agriculture—while emphasizing the need for enhanced international finance, technology transfer, and robust national legal frameworks to implement these ambitions.

• Current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, necessitating significantly strengthened mitigation efforts before 2030.
• The combined greenhouse gas emissions of the 48 Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) member countries total approximately 2.5 gross tonnage/year, which is roughly equivalent to the emissions of Indonesia, the world's fifth largest emitter.
• CVF countries can enhance energy sector ambition by pursuing 100% renewable energy targets, investing in energy storage to manage variability, and deploying distributed renewable energy to increase rural energy access.
• There are significant opportunities to reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), such as methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon, which are critical for limiting near-term warming and avoiding the 1.5°C overshoot.
• In the transport sector, CVF countries can increase ambition by promoting electric vehicles, shifting modal shares toward public transport, cycling, and walking, and adopting low-sulfur diesel fuel standards to reduce black carbon.
• Forests and coastal 'blue carbon' ecosystems (mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass meadows) offer high carbon sequestration potential; blue carbon ecosystems can be up to 10 times more effective at sequestering CO2 per area per annum than terrestrial forests.
• Agricultural emissions in CVF countries are dominated by livestock, which accounts for 71% of the sector's total emissions, primarily through enteric fermentation.
• Reducing postharvest food loss is identified as a key mitigation and development opportunity, as it increases food security for smallholder farmers and reduces emissions from wasted production.
• The implementation of enhanced NDCs is heavily dependent on external support, as 46 of the 48 CVF member NDCs are partially or fully conditional on receiving finance, capacity building, or technology transfer.
• Effective NDC implementation requires the establishment of national legal and financial frameworks, including the integration of climate priorities into national budgets and the creation of national climate change funds.

APA

NORTHROP, E., WASKOW, D., ROSS, K., GASPER, R., WU, A., & TANKOU, A. (2018). LEADING ON AMBITION: OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/leading-on-ambition.pdf?_ga=2.99988446.1594436982.1551301241-1903365296.1527016396

Chicago

NORTHROP, ELIZA, DAVID WASKOW, KATIE ROSS, REBECCA GASPER, ANDREW WU, and ALEXANDER TANKOU. LEADING ON AMBITION: OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM. World Resources Institute, 2018. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/leading-on-ambition.pdf?_ga=2.99988446.1594436982.1551301241-1903365296.1527016396.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{northrop2018leading, author = {NORTHROP, ELIZA and WASKOW, DAVID and ROSS, KATIE and GASPER, REBECCA and WU, ANDREW and TANKOU, ALEXANDER}, title = {{LEADING ON AMBITION: OPPORTUNITIES TO ENHANCE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2018}, month = nov, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/leading-on-ambition.pdf?_ga=2.99988446.1594436982.1551301241-1903365296.1527016396}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }