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From Plans to Progress: Essential Actions for Effective NDC Implementation

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As climate change intensifies, reversing gains in development, health and poverty reduction, countries around the world continue to invest in developing and implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — blueprints to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.  

NDCs are comprehensive, touching nearly every sector of the economy, from energy and transport to agriculture and water. They have the potential to boost food security, expand access to clean energy and deliver safe, reliable drinking water to climate-vulnerable communities. 

However, making the leap from NDC planning to implementation and investment mobilization remains a challenge — especially for developing countries. This means that many countries have unrealized development gains that could directly benefit communities.   

After nine years supporting over 100 developing countries, the NDC Partnership is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to accelerating national climate action. The scope and format of the implementation and investment plans countries put forward, alongside their NDCs, must be dictated by their unique ambitions, capacities, development needs and socioeconomic realities.  

However, there is a set of common factors that support ambitious climate action at the country level through impactful and sustained collaboration — regardless of national circumstances. Through its experience, the NDC Partnership has identified six critical “building blocks” for effective climate action that apply to both countries and supporting partners.  

For countries, the building blocks are high-level ownership of the NDC process, ambitious climate action that includes effective NDC implementation and investment planning and coordination, capacity and transparency. Partners can match countries’ efforts by strengthening their own building blocks: demonstrating equivalent high-level ownership, engaging collaboratively at the country level and providing greater, more reliable, flexible and timely support to countries. While key elements of countries’ climate plans are ultimately political decisions, partners can provide catalytic support to help countries strengthen these frameworks and accelerate progress on their climate agendas. 

Leveraging direct experience and dialogue with countries and partners, the NDC Partnership Support Unit published the best practice brief “Transitioning from NDC Planning to Investment,” outlining practical steps that countries can take to reinforce their essential building blocks for effective climate action. The brief highlights the following key insights for translating NDC planning into impactful climate action: 

1. Countries’ High-Level Ownership: Political Will Drives Progress 

Successfully implementing NDCs requires more than technical plans — it requires political leadership at the highest level. Transitioning from planning to action means reshaping economic systems, redirecting public and private resources and integrating climate priorities into the core of government decision-making.  

Political leadership begins with: 

  • Cabinet-endorsed long-term strategies — such as long-term visions or Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) — to sustain political ownership  
  • Legal frameworks that clarify responsibilities and strengthen institutional mandates  
  • Ministries of finance leading the integration of climate goals in national budgets, economic policies and investment frameworks 

High-level political ownership is essential for both mobilizing public finance and creating an enabling environment for private investment. This can include strengthening investment mobilization capacity, such as by establishing climate finance units (CFUs) within ministries of finance or ensuring climate risks are factored into fiscal planning.  

High-level ownership ensures that climate policy is not treated as a side agenda, but as a core component of national development. For example, Colombia passed Law 2169 — its climate action law — that makes the NDC legally binding, embedding climate goals into national legislation and ensuring continuity across political cycles. 

2. Countries’ Ambitious Climate Action: Aligning Plans with Systems 

The NDC itself is at the center of ambitious climate action. Strong mitigation and adaptation targets and actions — grounded in high-quality data, analysis and consultations — set the pathway for ambitious implementation and signal opportunities for public and private sector investment. 

To translate the NDC into action, many countries have developed NDC implementation and investment plans. However, the true value of these plans lies not in their existence or format but in how well they are integrated into national systems and aligned with broader development goals. 

Steps for aligning climate plans with broader national systems include: 

Integrating climate into national planning and budgeting systems 
  • Mainstreaming climate priorities into national, sectoral and subnational planning and budgeting to align NDC targets with broader development goals, using tools like climate budget tagging to track climate-related expenditures and strategically allocate and track funds 
  • Embedding NDC targets into long-term national strategies and sectoral development plans aligned with existing decision-making frameworks 
  • Reflecting climate priorities in national and subnational budgets by integrating climate objectives into planning guidelines and budget circulars 
Designing and structuring effective implementation and investment plans 
  • Tailoring plans to the national context using integrated planning frameworks where systems are strong — or developing standalone climate plans where existing frameworks are missing  
  • Applying results-based management to clearly assign responsibilities, set timelines and milestones and prioritize and sequence actions based on their feasibility and impact 
  • Bundling actions into programs to facilitate coordination, reduce duplication and support resource mobilization — which also helps to sequence activities and increases efficiency 
Strengthening enabling policy and regulatory frameworks 
  • Reforming sectoral and crosscutting policies to create incentives for low carbon and climate resilient investments 
  • Introducing climate-informed policy tools, such as budget tagging, green taxonomies and fiscal reforms, to redirect spending toward climate priorities 

Ultimately, climate action must become a routine — not exceptional — part of how governments plan, budget and legislate. For example, Rwanda has embedded climate action into its national planning and budgeting systems, requiring all ministries to align sectoral strategies with climate goals through a climate change checklist attached to the annual budget call circular. This institutionalized approach ensures climate priorities are integrated into everyday governance processes, enabling consistent investment in NDC implementation across all levels of government. 

3. Coordination, Capacity and Transparency by Countries: Making Systems Work 

Achieving NDC goals is a whole-of-government, whole-of-society effort built on just and inclusive consultation processes and aligned efforts among ministries, subnational authorities, private investors, development partners, legislators and civil society. Particularly with adaptation, success often hinges on locally led solutions. These must be informed by traditional knowledge, community engagement and climate risk data. 

National climate funds and development banks, with their specialized expertise and operational flexibility, can help deploy affordable financing. At the same time, enabling policy frameworks help shift market incentives and mobilize private investments aligned with NDC targets.  

Countries can advance these efforts with internal systems and external support, including:  

  • Robust coordination mechanisms, such as interministerial committees or technical working groups, to guide climate delivery and align stakeholders  
  • Across-the-board capacity building for everyone from civil servants and project developers to subnational actors, with training, embedded advisors and peer learning all playing a role in investment readiness 

Building robust monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems also ensures countries can track climate outcomes and financial flows, allowing for real-time course corrections and stronger accountability. This includes efforts such as: 

  • Developing mechanisms to monitor climate actions and investment flows at the national, sectoral and subnational levels 
  • Enabling course correction through timely assessments and feedback loops 
  • Institutionalizing transparency and accountability through data-driven reporting systems and tracking tools 

For example, Tajikistan has an NDC MRV system structured around three core pillars: tracking support needed and received, monitoring NDC implementation and measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Together, these components help Tajikistan meet its Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) obligations under the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF). 

From Plan to Portfolio: Making NDC Actions Investment Ready 

With the above building blocks in place, countries have a strong foundation. Making the leap to mobilize finance — especially private investment — depends on understanding investor needs, stronger information flows and well thought-out, nationally appropriate investment planning. Investment planning can guide countries through: 

  • Conducting market and barrier analyses to inform policy reform, risk mitigation tools and investment engagement strategies — including prefeasibility and technical assessments to shape viable project concepts and tailor them to the right financing mechanisms 
  • Prioritizing and costing NDC actions using transparent criteria and climate risk data to build credible, investment-ready project pipelines and bundle them into programs 
  • Converting prioritized projects into bankable proposals by aligning with investor requirements and leveraging tools like project checklists and preparation facilities 
  • Establishing national climate funds and green financing windows in development banks to aggregate climate finance, provide concessional finance and de-risk investments using blended finance instruments 
  • Promoting public–private partnerships (PPPs) and competitive procurement for large-scale projects, while strengthening technical capacity to structure viable proposals 
  • Creating an enabling environment for private investment by aligning sectoral policies, technical standards and fiscal incentives with NDC goals 
  • Engaging investors early and continuously, with clear communication on priorities, pipelines and opportunities 

For example, Brazil is mobilizing large-scale climate investment through innovative public finance mechanisms, including “Funda Clima,” a national climate fund managed by the central bank, and EcoInvest, a tender-based platform that leverages blended finance and de-risking tools. The first EcoInvest auction mobilized USD 7 billion with a 6.6 leverage ratio — meaning each dollar of public finance attracted USD 6.60 in additional investment. The Ministry of Finance also raised USD 2 billion through a sustainable sovereign bond to fund NDC-aligned public expenditures.  

Brazil has also launched a climate and ecological transformation investment platform (BIP) coordinated by the Brazilian development bank (BNDES). BIP mobilizes finance for its green transition by aligning public and private investments with national climate priorities and facilitates integrated investment planning across sectors like the bioeconomy, clean energy and sustainable mobility — positioning Brazil to attract scaled climate finance. 

Moving Forward: From Plans to Impact 

The next chapter of global climate action must focus on execution at scale. While the first generation of NDCs focused on setting targets, the challenge is to now turn those targets into real-world outcomes. Countries that establish strong systems of political ownership, ambitious action planning and coordinated, transparent delivery will be best positioned to attract finance, scale solutions and build low carbon, climate resilient economies. Public and private partners can match countries' efforts to raise ambition by channeling meaningful support and investment towards their climate and development goals. 

The NDC Partnership recognizes that no single intervention is enough. Success lies in getting the fundamentals right and in supporting countries to make climate action not just a commitment but a lived reality. 

Learn more about how countries can transition from NDC planning to implementation and investment mobilization, in the best practice brief, “Transitioning from NDC Planning to Investment.”