Climate change is the world’s largest challenge, which poses significant threats to global peace and security and threaten to backtrack progress to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Paris Agreement on Climate Change marks a turning point to an emerging climate regime that brings all the states and the actors together to a new global platform to address the growing risks to peace and development. Actions under current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are inadequate to achieve Paris Agreement long-term goals of limiting global temperature rise well below 2 degrees °C above pre-industrial levels; and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C. The Paris Agreement calls upon countries to review their NDCs periodically and raise mitigation and adaptation ambitions to help put the world on track to achieve neutrality by 2025.

In response to the UN Secretary General’s call for raising level of ambition in 2020, UNDP launched a global initiative known as Climate Promise to support countries scale up climate action under the Paris Agreement. The Climate Promise is UNDP’s response to this challenge. Tackling the climate crisis requires that all countries make bold pledges under the Paris Agreement and the Climate Promise is our commitment to ensure that any country wishing to increase the ambition of their national climate pledge can do so. In collaboration with partners, the work draws upon UNDP’s extensive portfolio of expertise across priorities such as energy, forests, water, resilience, agriculture, health, youth, finance, governance, gender equality and green jobs. It also builds upon UNDP’s established track record in supporting governments to discuss, design and deliver climate action under Paris Agreement. The Climate Promise is on the ground in 119 countries – making it the world’s largest offer of support for the enhancement of countries’ climate pledges..............etc......