Opportunities for Increasing Ambition of Nationally Determined Contributions through Integrated Air Pollution and Climate Change Planning: A practical guidance document

This guidance document provides a practical framework that can be used to identify, prioritise and include mitigation measures that can increase a country’s climate change mitigation ambition through actions that improve local air quality. It also outlines how this can be reflected in the updated Nationally Determined Contribution and accompanying information. 

The approach is based on knowledge gained through the Climate and Clean Air Coalition SNAP initiative and builds on previous guidance on NDC enhancement, the inclusion of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs), and analytical work by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition's Scientific Advisory Panel to formalise the “Multiple Benefits Pathway Framework”.

This framework emphasises that the path taken to achieving the Paris temperature targets matters because: i) reducing temperature increases in the near-term (e.g. next 25 years) can reduce climate impacts and feedbacks such as snow and ice melt, sea-level rise and biodiversity loss, ii) reduce the cost of meeting long-term temperature targets and iii) contribute to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals through implementation of key SLCP mitigation measures.

It has been developed to highlight that action needs to be taken immediately and that there are strategies that can significantly reduce climate change and air pollution impacts in the near term which are synergistic with strategies to safeguard the climate over the longer term (end of century).