Photo: Ab Rashid
22 Sep 2023, New York – Germany has pledged an additional 7 million Euro through UNDP’s flagship initiative, the Climate Promise: From Pledge to Impact, to support developing countries in defining credible long-term pathways for achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The announcement was made at a high-level event, co-hosted by Germany and UNDP, that took place at the German Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN).
With existing support from Germany, UNDP is already working with 27 countries on Long-Term Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Pakistan, which experienced devastating floods last year, is now charting a new path by bringing together its long-term strategy with economic planning. The new round of funding aims to undertake similar work in other countries as well.
Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) said, “I’m very happy that we can provide additional funding to UNDP’s Climate Promise to continue their excellent work on Long-Term Strategies. UNDP is a longstanding and key partner for us to support countries to develop their Long-Term Strategies, as well as to enhance and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Their work is crucial to support countries to reach their climate targets while at the same time achieving development and poverty reduction goals and shaping the economies of the future. This is also a very important contribution to the NDC Partnership.”
UNDP’s Climate Promise was launched in 2019 with a focus on enhancing NDCs to raise ambition and is now supporting countries to implement these pledges and align them with long-term, net-zero pathways. To back the in-country work, UNDP also provides technical expertise in key areas that are essential to delivering robust short-term and long-term targets – including just transition, design of circular economy and net-zero pathways, gender mainstreaming, and reimagining urbanisation. Real-time intelligence tracks current NDC data trends, while solutions are shared to inform ongoing UNFCCC processes such as the global stocktake, and demonstrate the value of multilateralism.
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Federal Republic of Germany for this new contribution, part of its longstanding commitment to UNDP as we work side-by-side with countries to implement their climate pledges under the Paris Agreement known as NDCs. These NDCs have proven to be not only ‘sovereign investment plans’ for climate adaptation and mitigation -- they are also driving progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.” "Moreover, UNDP’s new Climate Hub brings together our vast climate portfolio, currently active in nearly 150 countries, under one roof. In doing so, UNDP aims to support countries across the world to better align their climate and development priorities: a vital means to drive the decisive level of climate action that is now needed.”
The high-level event was co-hosted by Germany and UNDP and took place at the German Permanent Mission to the UN. Speakers showcased successes and challenges of leveraging NDCs and Long-Term Strategies to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and simultaneously scaling up finance in key drivers of development – from clean energy to resilient agriculture to nature-based-solutions.
H.E. Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation from Ghana highlighted his county’s progress on financing NDC implementation, while H.E. Dr. Iziaq Kunle Salako, Minister of State for the Federal Ministry of Environment in Nigeria described Nigeria’s legal framework to successfully implement its NDCs.
The Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, described her country’s approach to delivering climate goals and simultaneously achieving development priorities, focusing on the nexus on water, food and energy.
The NDC Partnership co-chair, H.E. Graham Stuart MP, Minister of State (Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero) of the United Kingdom (UK) stressed the important role of the Partnership to coordinate global action on NDCs and foster alignment with Long-Term Strategies.
UNDP is a founding member of the NDC Partnership and one of its largest implementers of member country support needs requests. The Climate Promise has attracted a wide number of donors in addition to Germany’s BMZ and Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, including Japan, Sweden, the UK, Spain, Belgium, Iceland, Portugal, Latvia, and Netherlands.