Stronger NDCs With Cities, States, and Regions: Recommendations for National Governments

The climate crisis impacts every aspect of our society, economy, and planet. Its effects transcend borders, sectors, and populations and require ambitious solutions that are built on the foundations of multilevel and cross-sectoral collaboration and partnerships. Collaboration between national and subnational governments is particularly critical since cities are responsible for more than 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 80 percent of global gross domestic product. While national government's control key climate policy levers like building codes and efficiency standards, subnational governments—including cities, towns, provinces, states, and regions (hereby referred to as cities, states and regions)—are on the front lines of climate change impacts and responses. This document supports national governments in strengthening the subnational content of the NDCs to reflect the highest possible ambition and increase the likelihood of implementation. While the authors acknowledge that collaborating with subnational governments beyond the NDC development process is critical, NDC financing and implementation falls beyond the scope of this document and may be addressed in future publications.