POLICY BRIEF Overview SDGs Countries NDC–SDG Connections Publications About Help Back to overview SDG 2: Zero Hunger Climate actions formulated in NDCs exhaustively target agricultural production and food security. Climate smart agriculture is at the core of countries’ climate ambitions to end hunger. Overall, SDG2-related issues are second most often mentioned. becomes an NDC (although a handful of countries chose to Clim 1 ate-sm revise them before converting them into NDCs ). For the art and ed su Fe sta d… in purposes of the NDC-SDG Connections tool, both NDCs er an ab liz le ti a er g F ri and intended NDCs were analysed. cu n lt io u t r a e ig r Ir … The Paris Agreement is built on a bottom-up approach, / d e o m o 2.5 2.1 o ih c l MAINTAIN END HUNGER IN e meaning that countries are free to determine their own n I v i GENETIC DIVER… ALL ITS FORMS l SDG2 T A L . R G i climate targets and instruments, expressed in the NDCs. E . T v e S e g s a t l o i n Under the provisions of the Paris Agreement, each country c o a k S m of crop of Diversi will be asked to submit an updated NDC every five years, ZERO f HUNGER with the aim of ratcheting up ambition compared with s i c 2 a t i o the previous NDC. n 2.2 2.4 END A MALNUTRITIO... g ENSURE r o SUSTAINABLE… f o r While NDCs are primarily a mechanism for climate action, e s t r y many countries have used them to indicate other priorities F 2.3 f o and ambitions for sustainable development (Pauw et al. o o ASSURE o d n d s AGRICULTURAL… o s e ti a c c f u u 2016). But because individual NDCs are very different in e ri d t t o y y r / p od scope and content to SDGs, and because the SDGs were Fo S e ds still being negotiated when countries were developing their a nd ure cro ult ps agric Increase NDCs, the links between NDC activities and SDGs are vity producti not made explicit in the NDC texts. The NDC-SDG Con- nections tool aims to fill this gap, but doing so requires an Figure 2: Zooming in on individual SDGs – SDG 2: Zero assessment of the scale of local challenges, and an effort to How did we do this? HungerSDG target Inner circle pie size = Total Outer circle pie size = Relative Free shape = Amount of Climate action amount of climate actions that amount of climate actions to all climate actionslink for the chosen these with ambitions in national climate plans as well Source: NDC-SDG Connectionscontribute to(www.ndc-sdg.info) reach SDG target climate actions for the SDG target/s country for comparison as sustainable development strategies. dimensions of sustainable development and aim to pro- 4. Sample insights from NDC-SDG Connections vide a social foundation for humanity while ensuring that The activities countries have committed to in order to meet human development takes place within the biophysical their climate ambitions go far beyond SDG 13 on climate Analysis SDGboundaries 2 across of all Earth. countries’ NDCs change. Our data show that many activities under the NDCs overlap with SDG ambitions, and that, to some extent, they The SDGs were arrived at through a unique global process, span across every SDG (see Figure 1). Type of Climate Actioncentring Percentageon an open of Quantifiable working groupTop 5 ofCountries member by Climate states andTop 5 Co-Benefits with consultationClimate with Actions a broad range Actionsof stakeholders. The textother SDGs NDC activities link to the following SDGs most extensively: Mitigation 110was / 12% subsequently agreed on by all UN member states inAgriculture the • 785SDG / 88,5% 2: Zero Hunger DEU 120 General Assembly in September 2015.France Land use/management• 142SDG / 16% 7: Affordable and Clean Energy 785 / Adaptation 88,5% 300 93% KRO • SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation Water 110 / 12% No 50 Both 142While / 16% the 2030 Agenda is global in its ambition and uni- • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities Spain Resilience 99 / 11% versally applicable, it is up to countriesUSA to decide how to • SDG 15: Life on Land 100 250 N/A 99 / 11% Yes No implement61 it, / 6.5% and how to821 /prioritize93% goals and targets, Forest • SDG17:88 / 10% Partnership for the Goals. depending on national needs and ambitions. They are free to set up their own national and subnational implementation This underlines how issues around agriculture, energy structures and plans. Countries are also encouraged to work and water are key for combating climate change as well in partnership to learn and assist each other. as for sustainable development. The same is true for SDG 11, which reflects the importance of urbanization both for SDG 2: Zero hungerThe official – Contributions follow-up and reviewfrom mechanism includes vol- achieving the 2030 Agenda and for the success of the Paris climate actionsuntary national reviews that are presented to the global High Agreement, with over 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions SDG 2 is to “End hunger, achieveLevel food Political security and Forum,improved nutrition which and promotemeets annually underGET MORE the NDC aus CONTENT- AT THEgenerated by towns and cities. sustainable agriculture”. pices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). NDC Explorer Effects of climate change have severe impacts on agricultural production and hence on food Because the implementation of many NDCs is conditional production and food security.Although At the same time,the foodNDCs production are is aclosely major contributor linked to to countries’ imple- and depends on the provision of finance, there are also global greenhouse gas emissions. Only one other SDG has more NDC climate actions contributing to it. Most of mentationthese actions center of on the climate-smart Paris Agreement,agriculture, an approach which to was adopted in many pertinent connections between the implementation of developing the technical, Decemberpolicy and investment 2015, conditions they to achieve were sustainable first drafted before that date. The the Paris Agreement and SDG 17: Means of Implementation agricultural developmentsuccess for food security of under the climate Paris change. Agreement can be attributed to – and and Global Partnership, which, among other things, seeks to At the level of targets, SDGwill target depend2.4 (sustainable on agricultural – these production strategic systems documents. for mobilize financial resources for developing countries. resource protection and climate change resilience) was the most frequently addressed in NDC climate actions, while target 2.1 (ensure universal access to sufficient nutritious food) These connections emphasize the need for both partnership was the second most frequentlyThe cited.submitted Target 2.3 (double NDC agriculturals, representing productivity for 192 parties, go far and policy coherence between the two agendas. smallholders) is not addressed in any of the NDCs studied, illustrating the need for countries’ climate ambitionsbeyond to be complemented proposals with other to reducesustainable developmentgreenhouse gas emissions to strategies. mitigate climate change, also mentioning numerous ad- From a sustainability perspective, we might expect most SDG 2 is very important foraptation climate action. measures Our analysis also as reveals well that as climate other actions activities that promote climate activities in NDCs to be linked with either the that focus on sustainable sustainableagricultural production development. also connect with improved Formally, water the NDCs submitted environmental or the economic SDGs. While our analysis management (SDG 6), land-use management and forestry (SDG 15) and, to a lesser extent, economic growth (SDG 8).before the adoption of the Paris Agreement were referred to supports this, not all environmental SDGs are equally as “intended nationally determined contributions”. Once the country has ratified the Paris Agreement, the intended NDC 1 http://unfccc.int/focus/ndc_registry/items/9433.php A PROJECT BY CONTACT US We welcome your feedback, requests or questions: [email protected] FINANCED BY Find more information on the project or how to Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) use the tool under Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) About or Help. In cooperation with the UNFCCC secretariat. Copyright © 2017 Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Bonn. Impress & Privacy well reflected in NDC climate activities. For example, there al practices that increase productivity and production, that are four times fewer activities related to SDG 14: Life Be- help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adap- low Water (which focuses primarily on oceans and marine tation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding resources) than to SDG 15: Life on Land. This is surprising and other disasters and that progressively improve land and given that oceans are the single largest habitat on the planet soil quality”) is the most prioritized. and are inextricably linked to human survival, as well as playing a major role in climate. Themes and cross-SDG synergies Our analysis of NDC climate activities shows that they also connect with the social dimensions of the SDGs, but to a lesser extent. For example, countries connect their climate ambitions to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, SDG 4: Quality Education, and SDG 5: Gender Equality. But beyond the five core thematic areas of agriculture, water, energy, industry and land use, there remains a lot of room for im-provement for NDCs to incorporate climate-related social dimensions of sustainable development. SDG targets and climate actions Our fine-grained analysis enables us to go beyond assessing general SDG coverage of NDCs to also investigate which concrete climate actions are incorporated in the NDCs and how they contribute to SDGs at the level of targets.