BACKGROUND

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries unanimously agreed to work toward global goals that would limit global average temperature rise. Specifically, the Agreement seeks to limit the rise in the world’s average surface temperatures to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial times this century, while “pursuing efforts” for 1.5°C. It also sets a target of eliminating global GHG emissions by the second half of the century – or at least compensating any residual emissions through, for example, forest growth.

A key principle in the Paris Agreement is that no country should backslide on its intentions, which were put forward in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which describe each country’s self-determined strategy for curbing GHG emissions, typically in five- or ten-year periods and can also include plans to increase resilience. Individually, NDCs represent each country’s climate priorities and vision for achieving sustainable development. Aggregated, they represent the world’s collective efforts to fight climate change. However current NDCs are estimated to collectively result in a temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4 °C by 2100.

All countries are expected to submit increasingly ambitious NDCs every five years; a first opportunity to do so is in 2020. Achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals will require an emissions peak as soon as possible, followed by sharp reductions in GHG emissions. Therefore, many see high ambition in 2020 as fundamental to get on track to 1.5°C and counter a worrying trend of rising emissions. The transformative climate action required needs a global commitment to raising ambition, articulated in the next generation of NDCs, to create economic drivers that shift investments away from fossil fuel use and carbon-intensive practices.

In response, UNDP is leveraging its extensive climate portfolio and scale up urgently needed support for NDC enhancement in 100 countries, working in close collaboration with UN system partners (e.g. UNEP, FAO, UNICEF), IRENA, the NDC Partnership, the Green Climate Fund, and other strategic partners. An integrated approach will be used that harnesses the wide-ranging expertise of UNDP’s Global Policy Network to strengthen climate solutions with perspectives from governance, health, water, gender equality, women’s and youth empowerment, disaster risk reduction, and inclusive growth, among others.

The UNDP through its Climate Promise initiative is assisting St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG) in its efforts to update its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). UNDP will support activities that will contribute to raised mitigation and adaptation ambition in the revised NDC. It is expected that the implementation of the NDCs will be closely linked to global and local goals and agreements such Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other national sectoral policies. As such the UNDP is seeking to hire a consultant to undertake an economic impact assessment of the mitigation and adaptation approaches included in the updated NDC. The assessment should analyse the set of social economic implications in SVG for the selected NDC targets/policies and provide recommendations on policy actions to improve capacity to review, update and report on the NDC implementation.