COP31: Aligning Long-Term Strategies and NDCs: Living Framework for Prioritizing and Sequencing Implementation

Over the past decade, countries have developed an increasingly rich architecture of climate planning under the Paris Agreement through successive Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) cycles and, for a growing number of countries, Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS). Recent evidence, including assessments of submitted LT-LEDS and NDC enhancement processes, provides valuable insights into how these instruments are being developed and used in practice. The evidence points to a consistent pattern: LT-LEDS can add greater value when NDCs are aligned with them, translating long-term objectives into near-term priorities and treating them as living processes — supporting both ambition and strategic prioritization of measures as circumstances evolve.

This event examines how stronger alignment between NDCs and LT-LEDS can help countries prioritize and sequence implementation, sustain climate and development objectives across political cycles and treat long-term strategies as living, iterative frameworks rather than one-off vision-setting exercises.