What roles do sub-national governments play in Nationally Determined Contributions? Between rhetoric and practice in REDD+ countries

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Key points

  • Research and practice place much emphasis on the transformative role that sub-national governments (SNGs) may play in climate change action.
  • Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are not blueprints for implementation, but they offer some insight into potential priorities. Currently, the role of SNGs in most is limited: of 60 “REDD+ countries”, only 14 explicitly mention a role for SNGs in mitigation, and only 4 of these give SNGs a decision-making role.
  • This failure to assign more precise roles to SNGs may prove to be short-sighted as climate change is a global problem, but solutions such as REDD+ need to be implemented locally and jurisdictionally, and thus require local input.
  • The factors that will affect the realization of the roles assigned to SNGs in NDCs include: political will toward decentralization; the funds required by Parties to achieve their targets; the capacities of SNGs; and the need to align sub-national with national development priorities.
Authors: Sarmiento Barletti, J.P.; Larson, A.M.; Cisneros, N.
Subjects: climate change, policy, governance, mitigation, development policy, national plan
Publication type: Brief, Publication
Year: 2018

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