Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) is the climate action plan to reduce the national emisssions and adapt to climate change impacts. It can also be called as the heart of the Paris Agreement. The major goals of Paris agreement were to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels this century and to keep temperatures from rising above 1.5°C. To achieve these goals each country need to do something. So, each party need to submit their own targets and contributions as per their resource and ability. These country targets are now known as NDCs. The Article 4, paragraph 2 of Paris Agreement requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs)
Submissions of NDCs
The Paris Agreement recognizes that the long-term goals specified in its Articles 2 and 4.1 will be achieved through time and, therefore, builds on a ratcheting up of aggregate and individual ambition over time. NDCs are submitted every five years to the UNFCCC secretariat. In order to enhance the ambition over time the Paris Agreement provide that successive NDCs will represent a progression compared to the previous NDC and reflect its highest possible ambition. Parties are requested to submit the next round of NDCs (new NDCs or updated NDCs) by 2020 and every five years thereafter (e.g. by 2020, 2025, 2030), regardless of their respective implementation time frames.