Working Paper
September 2019
Adis Dzebo
Hannah Janetschek
Clara Brandi
Gabriela Iacobuta
Connections
between the Paris
Agreement and the
2030 Agenda
The case for policy coherence
Stockholm Environment Institute
Linnégatan 87D 115 23 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel: +46 8 30 80 44 www.sei.org
Author contact: Adis Dzebo
Editing: Karen Brandon
Layout: Richard Clay
Cover photo: Douglas Sacha / Getty
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Copyright © July 2019 by Stockholm Environment Institute
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Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................ 4
1. Introduction ....................................................................................4
2. Connecting two separate global processes through
coherent national implementation............................................5
2.1 The Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030 ............................5
2.2 Connecting the two agendas through policy coherence ..6
3. Methodology...................................................................................7
4. 2030 Agenda through a climate lens – main findings for
how climate action complements the SDGs .......................... 9
4.1 The top tier: SDGs with the strongest connections to
NDC activities .......................................................................................10
4.2 The middle tier: SDGs with mid-level connections to NDC
activities ....................................................................................................19
4.3 The bottom tier: SDGs with few connections to NDC
activities ...................................................................................................27
5. Discussion ................................................................................... 28
5.1 NDCs are more than climate action plans .............................. 28
5.2 NDCs need to be complemented and strengthened ........29
5.3 Opportunities for increased policy coherence ...................30
6. Conclusions and next steps ..................................................... 31
References .........................................................................................32
4 Stockholm Environment Institute
Abstract
Finalized in 2015, the Paris Agreement and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development both represent universally approved policy visions that signal a paradigm shift:
from a “top-down” approach of set, international mandates to a “bottom-up”, country-driven
implementation process. Limited interaction between the processes of the two agendas at both
global and national levels, however, threatens to impede eective implementation. Furthermore,
aggregate analyses are lacking to enhance understanding of potential overlaps, gaps and conflicts
between the two agreement’s key implementation instruments: the Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Such analyses are
essential to increase policy coherence of plans and strategies, and to improve eectiveness of
implementation of the two agendas. This paper aims to fill this gap. It provides a global analysis
that explores how the climate actions contained in countries’ NDCs connect to the 17 SDGs. The
paper, which builds on the findings of the NDC-SDG Connections tool, demonstrates that NDC
actions to various extents foster synergies with national development priorities that reflect the 2030
Agenda. The research further reveals those sustainable development-related issues that are directly
addressed through climate action, and those issues that are currently absent from NDC activities.
The paper demonstrates that the actions outlined in the NDCs to various extents foster synergies
with national development priorities that reflect the 2030 Agenda. We find that a large number of
climate activities support, for example, SDG 7 (aordable and clean energy), SDG 15 (life on land)
and SDG 2 (zero hunger), but that significant gaps exist in relation to SDGs such as SDG 5 (gender
equality), SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 16 (peace and justice). Increasing the transparency and
understanding of these possible connections, gaps and conflicts can facilitate policy coherence and
leverage buy-in for ambitious implementation of the two agendas.
1. Introduction
The Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda both represent internationally agreed, universal visions.
Their implementation is based on a “bottom-up” process, meaning that countries identify and
subsequently act and report on their own priorities, needs and ambitions (Mbeva and Pauw
2016; Carraro 2016). This paradigm shift towards governance by goals, targets and contributions
set by individual countries, as opposed to a “top-down” approach of set international mandates
has created a debate in academia as well as in policy-making circles about how to coherently
implement both agendas (Biermann et al. 2017, Bouyé et al. 2018, Janteschek et al. 2019; Roy et
al. 2018). Horizontal policy coherence thus represents a key challenge. How can national climate
policy be truly ambitious over the medium and long terms while also cohering with other important
policy targets and objectives adopted by a government? At present, two processes are taking
place in parallel with limited, if any, communication on the interfaces between them (UNDP 2017).
Policy agendas are being set through two distinct channels: 1) National Sustainable Development
Strategies (NSDS’s) intended to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the
2030 Agenda, and 2) the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) intended to achieve the
aims of the Paris Agreement
This situation raises issues related to the crafting and implementing of policies that can achieve the
ambitious objectives of sustainability and climate change missions. These aims require knowledge
about thematic alignments and potential goal conflicts, not only within but also between the two
agendas (Lyer et al. 2018; Von Stechow et al. 2015). For example, can energy access for all be
secured without relying on fossil fuels? Can climate adaptation be pursued in an inclusive way in
unequal societies? Research on both the conceptual and empirical connections between the two
agendas is emerging (see e.g. Pahuja and Raj 2017; UNFCCC 2017; Iacobuta et al. 2018; Huang 2018;
GIZ 2018; Nguyen et al. 2018; Janteschek et al. 2019; Northrop et al. 2016). However, aggregate
analysis is lacking to enhance understanding of overlaps and gaps between NDCs and SDGs
that can increase policy coherence of plans and strategies, and to improve eectiveness of the
implementation of both the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030. This paper aims to fill this gap.
In light of the
multiple overlaps,
the assessed NDCs
can be regarded
not only as climate
plans but also as de
facto sustainable
development
plans because
they include many
priorities that reflect
the 2030 Agenda.
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 5
It provides a global analysis of countries’ NDCs, and explores how climate actions connect with the
broader sustainable development agenda. The paper uses NDC-SDG Connections,
1
an interactive online
tool that highlights thematic contributions of NDCs to the 2030 Agenda (Brandi et al. 2017), and reveals
areas related to sustainable development that are not included in countries’ climate action plans.
Section 2 of this study explores the two historical processes that led to the Paris Agreement and the
2030 Agenda. Section 3 discusses our methodology. Section 4 presents the results of the analysis
of possible NDC-SDG connections, and dierentiates SDGs according to whether they have high,
medium or low levels of connections with climate action. This section shows which climate actions are
most relevant to the broader sustainability agenda, and it identifies themes that should be made more
complementary to climate action through more adequately designed NSDS’s. Section 5 then discusses
the ways forward to meaningfully align the thematic implementation of both agendas (the 2030 Agenda
and the Paris Agreement). Section 6 concludes by setting out next steps for research and analysis.
1 http://ndc-sdg.info/
2 http://unfccc.int/focus/ndc_registry/items/9433.php
3 From here on, for consistency, we only use the term “NDC”.
4 Subsequently, we use the abbreviation “NSDS’s” to encompass all types of national and subnational strategies to implement the
SDGs.
2. Connecting two separate global processes through
coherent national implementation
2.1 The Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030
In 2013, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decided that
each member state would submit a national climate plan, so called Intended Nationally Determined
Contributions (INDCs), as the core mechanism for increasing climate ambition. This decision,
representing a shift from the Kyoto Protocol process, created a bottom-up approach for the Paris
Agreement. Countries are free to determine their own climate targets and instruments, expressed in
nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Once a country ratifies the Paris Agreement, its INDC
converts into an NDC. Many countries have already formally joined the Paris Agreement and converted
their INDCs to NDCs, while a few countries have chosen to revise their INDC in the conversion
process.
2
Under the provisions of the Paris Agreement, each country submits an updated every five
years, with the aim of ratcheting up ambition compared with the previous NDC.
3
The success of the
Paris Agreement can be attributed to – and will depend on – these strategic documents. While initially
intended to be documents outlining commitments to greenhouse gas reduction, the 165 submitted
NDCs representing 192 Parties go far beyond the proposal to reduce emissions to mitigate climate
change; they also mention numerous adaptation measures as well as other activities that promote
sustainable development (Pauw et al. 2016).
The 2030 Agenda encompasses 17 SDGs (Figure 1), 169 targets and a declaration text articulating the
principles of integration, universality, transformation and a global partnership. The agenda came into
being through a unique global process of an open working group, which jointly developed the 17 SDGs
that were subsequently agreed on by all UN member states (Beisheim 2015). The SDGs include the
social, environmental and economic dimensions of development. They aim to provide a social foundation
for humanity while ensuring that human development takes place within earth’s biophysical boundaries
(Rockström 2009). At national levels, implementation of the 2030 Agenda varies from country to
country, and is based on national needs and ambitions. At the international level, the High-Level Political
Forum (HLPF) meets annually under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
to discuss Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) as part of the oicial follow-up and review mechanism
of the 2030 Agenda (Beisheim 2018). However, individual countries are left to set-up an institutional
architecture for implementing the SDGs at national and subnational levels through National Sustainable
Development Strategies (NSDS’s)
4
. Countries can also work in partnership with other countries to learn
from each other’s experiences on challenges in implementation.
6 Stockholm Environment Institute
The Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda rest on an architecture which can be described
as “hybrid multilateralism” as it splices together state and non-state actions both in the state-
defined contributions to the agreements as well as in the eorts initiated by UN organizations
to orchestrate actions to reach the goals of the agreements (Bäckstrand et al. 2017). Their
implementation is based on countries identifying, and subsequently acting and reporting on
their own priorities, while non-state actors are formally expected to participate in overseeing
and facilitating the implementation (Bäckstrand et al. 2017). However, dierent institutional,
policy and administrative processes, dierent actors, and dierent datasets have been utilized
to translate the global commitments of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement into national
frameworks, institutions and actions (UNDP 2017). There is institutional fragmentation (Biermann
et al. 2017) in the governance of climate change and sustainable development (Gupta and van der
Grijp 2010), both at the global and the national level that impose an extra obstacle to coherent
implementation processes.
To increase coherence in the implementation of these two agendas, more knowledge is needed,
both at the global level and in national contexts. One approach to this end is to investigate
the links between the NDCs and the SDGs. While NDCs are primarily a mechanism for climate
action, many countries have used them to indicate other priorities and ambitions for sustainable
development (Pauw et al. 2016). Individual NDCs are very dierent in scope and content to SDGs,
and the SDGs were still being negotiated when countries were developing their NDCs; thus, the
thematic areas through which NDCs address various SDGs are not clearly indicated, and further
analysis is needed.
2.2 Connecting the two agendas through policy coherence
Understanding the connections between climate change and sustainable development is a
first step needed to foster coherency of implementation of both agendas. The concept of
policy coherence is commonly defined as matching of policies, processes and institutions at all
government and governance levels to avoid contradictions and goal conflicts in policy making.
Policy coherence in sustainable development addresses the systematic integration of policies,
processes and institutions towards coherent implementation of sustainable development (OECD,
2018: 83; OECD 2001; ICSU 2017). Its importance is reflected in SDG 17.14 (enhance policy
coherence for sustainable development), making it a key objective of the 2030 Agenda.
Figure 1: The 17 Sustainable Development Goals
Source: United Nations
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 7
Policy coherence means that the combined policies addressing an area are compatible,
mutually reinforcing or even synergistic, while incoherence means that they are conflicting or
contradictory (May et al. 2006). For example, in the case of energy, policy coherence is a useful
concept for understanding to what extent energy policy goals and other policy goals (economic,
environmental, social) mutually support or undermine one another (Meuleman 2019; Tosun et al.
2017). Policies promoting electrification in rural areas (as one type of energy policy) can also help
to improve rural infrastructure and therefore help to further SDG 4 that calls for inclusive and
equitable education. On the other hand, if electrification is achieved through scaling-up of fossil
fuels, trade-os can arise with other goals or targets. Thus, evaluation of policy measures related
to energy systems would need to consider their eects both on SDG 7 (aordable and clean
energy) as well as on sustainable development more broadly (McCollum et al. 2018).
There have been calls to expose and mediate goal conflicts at an early stage for coherent
implementation within political and socio-economic contexts in the short and long terms, at all
levels of implementation, and across regions (OECD 2016; Kanter et al. 2016). For example, the use
of biofuels for energy production would likely reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but could also
negatively aect food prices through competition over land resources used for food production.
Biofuels could harm ecosystems and biodiversity through increased expansion of monocultures.
Biofuels would also likely aect soil and water through use of fertilizers and pesticides if these
risks are not adequately addressed in the policy design (see e.g. Hasegawa et al. 2018; Bonsch et
al. 2016). Thus, in this case, progress towards achieving SDG 7 could negatively harm progress
towards achieving SDGs 2 (end hunger/promote sustainable agriculture), 6 (clean water and
sanitation) and 15 (life on land/restore and protect ecosystems).
Analysing the potential impact of NDCs on SDGs allows insights into overlaps and gaps between
the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. This relationship is diicult to
trace, however, because trade-os are most often not mentioned in policy documents, and they
are not formulated as direct actions. For a coherent implementation of the two agendas, adequate
methods to identify trade-os need to be developed, and an improved understanding of such
interactions is required to manage potential goal conflicts and inconsistencies among economic,
social and environmental policy objectives.
5 The lone exception is the Iraqi NDC, which was published in Arabic only. The 27 member states of the European Union all
share one NDC, despite being individual parties to the Paris Agreement. This means that the same data will be presented for
these countries.
3. Methodology
The analysis in this paper focuses on understanding how NDCs address various SDGs beyond
climate action. To do so, we use the NDC-SDG Connections tool (Brandi et al. 2017) to identify
how NDC activities and targets relate to SDGs. The analysis behind the NDC-SDG connections
presented here is based on a textual analysis of all NDCs or INDCs that were available in 2016.
5
To create the database, the textual content of each NDC was examined to identify concrete
“activities” – statements presenting a strand of future activity, conditional or unconditional, under
the NDC. These disaggregated activities served as data points for the analysis. These activities
were subsequently matched with one of the 17 SDGs. An activity description usually ranges
between a minimum of one sentence and a maximum of three sentences. Where a statement
applies to multiple SDG targets (as was the case for only a very limited number of activities, it was
added to the database multiple times. In cases, where SDG targets overlap in their definition, we
assigned an activity to only one of them (e.g. education in SDG 4.7 and SDG 13.3). We started by
counting the frequency of key words as well as the volume of committed activities of a country
in a certain policy sector. Coding stuck very much to the exact wording of the activity, but
hand coding also was used to define close synonyms of certain activities (e.g. “water storage
capacities” were coded as “infrastructure”). We coded the data points (NDC activities) for all 17
SDGs and their 169 targets in four broad categories:
At present, two
processes are taking
place in parallel
with limited, if any,
communication
on the interfaces
between them.
8 Stockholm Environment Institute
1. Interpretation: Assessment of NDC activities according to their radius of influence (national,
regional, local); type of climate action (adaptation, mitigation, both, or none); whether the
activities imply capacity-building measures; whether the activities imply technological
improvements (and if so, the type of technology); whether the activity mentions a quantifiable
target to be reached; and whether the activity relates to a policy plan or strategy (and if so at
what level).
2. SDG targets: Here we assessed whether a climate activity can be linked to specific SDG
targets in their wording. For this purpose, we created a codebook that includes the wording
of each SDG and its targets and also includes the oicial global indicators that follow
each target.
3. Climate actions: We derived, inductively from the NDC activities, a set of the most frequently
mentioned categories of action that could be attributed to the SDGs and SDG targets. This
set of so-called climate actions varies for each SDG.
4. SDG themes/Cross-cutting themes: We also looked for broader socio-economic sectoral
categories. Some themes closely relate to a particular SDG, but they can also be broader
than one SDG, and may encompass two or even more SDGs (e.g. agriculture as a theme
encompasses SDG 2 [zero hunger] and SDG 15 [life on land]). This approach helped reveal
co-benefits indicated in the climate activities that go beyond a specific SDG. For example, if
an activity targeted improvement in the agricultural sector it was coded as relevant for SDG
2.4 (maintain diversity of seeds, plants, animals], but if it also mentioned co-benefits for water
eiciency (SDG 6.4) and forest management (SDG 15.2) it was coded as providing co-benefits
on these respective SDG targets. In total, we identified 42 cross-sectoral categories, which we
analysed across all 17 SDGs.
Overall, from 164 NDCs, we derived more than 7,100 activities. These activities were then used as
data inputs for constructing the tool. To guarantee the reliability of our analysis we applied inter-
coder reliability, meaning that always at least two independent coders went through the data
material while a third final approval of the decisions taken was guaranteed for all the activities in
the analysis.
One limitation of our analysis is that it does not address co-benefits and trade-os that cannot
be directly linked to the wording of the NDC climate activity alone. In that sense, a single climate
activity would likely have a multitude of direct and indirect co-impacts on other SDGs, but we
indicate only the SDG most directly addressed. Hence, we analyse only direct links, not indirect
co-impacts. While this approach is powerful in identifying the strongest links and highlighting
the sustainable development dimension of the NDCs and overlaps and gaps between the two
agendas, it has the limitation of showing only positive interlinkages. More analysis is required to
tackle this dimension to complement the focus and capacity of the tool. Moreover, there is a need
to complement the current analysis of countries’ NDCs through the SDG-lens with an analysis
of their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), in which they report on their progress regarding the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and their links to the NDCs.
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 9
4. 2030 Agenda through a climate lens – main findings
for how climate action complements the SDGs
This chapter presents results from NDC-SDG Connections. The analysis of 164 NDCs reveals
strong connections between climate ambition and the broader sustainable development agenda
(Figure 1). It shows, however, that not all SDGs are equally addressed by climate action. This
chapter is structured as follows: Chapter 4.1 presents SDGs that have strong connections with
climate activities ; Chapter 4.2 presents SDGs that have medium connections, and Chapter 4.3
presents SDGs that have hardly any overlap with climate activities.
Figure 2: Distribution of NDC activities in relation to the 17 SDGs
Source: ndc-sdg.info
10 Stockholm Environment Institute
4.1 The top tier: SDGs with the strongest connections to NDC
activities
Analysis from the NDC-SDG Connections reveals that proposed activities in countries’ NDCs
most prominently cover six SDGs. Many climate activities commit to increase renewable energy
sources and provide for more eicient energy technologies. Our research shows that six SDGs
have the strongest connection to NDC activities. Ordered from those with the strongest to the
weakest links, these six SDGs are:
• Aordable and clean energy (SDG 7) links access to energy and energy
eiciency measures to the key climate change objective to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
• Life on land (SDG 15) reflects the role of ecosystems, forest management and
land use in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• No hunger (SDG 2) makes clear that sustainable and climate-smart agriculture
is seen as a key solution in the fight to limit average temperature increase to
below 2°C.
• Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) relates to climate activities focused
on urban planning and public transport.
• Clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) relates to climate activities focusing on
water eiciency and water ecosystem management.
• Partnerships for goals (SDG 17) highlights the importance of providing financial
support, technology transfer, and capacity building for those countries that
need it the most - particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the
Small-Island Developing States (SIDS).
Strongest links to NDC activities: aordable and clean energy (SDG 7)
As dependence on fossil fuels for energy production is a key driver of climate change (IPCC
2014), changing energy systems is at the center of mitigation activities of NDCs and hence
these activities contribute most prominently to SDG 7 (aordable and clean energy). Most
countries flag renewable energy and energy eiciency as key climate actions in their NDCs,
making SDG 7 the strongest point of connection with national climate plans. In that regard,
SDG 7 connects with the highest share of NDC activities, 16% of the total.
Figure 2 shows how NDC activities connect with SDG 7. The inner circle of the figure displays
how NDC activities connect with the respective targets of SDG 7. At the level of targets, more
than 50% of NDC activities relate to SDG 7.2 (increase substantially the share of sustainable
energy in the global energy mix), while 34% contribute to SDG 7.3 (double the global rate of
improvement in energy eiciency). In the outer circle of the figure, we show the frequency
(signified by the size of the segment) of specific climate actions attributed to that goal. In
terms of specific climate actions, they correspond well with the SDG targets. Energy eiciency
and clean and renewable energy are most important climate actions. In terms of specific energy
sources, solar energy is the most popular renewable source of energy, followed by hydropower
and bioenergy. Another key climate action is increasing energy eiciency measures (Figure 2).
For many low-income countries, however, the issue of high costs of renewable energy often
has to be balanced with the need for increased energy access. Achieving the global goal of
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 11
universal access to energy by 2030 in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will require a
350% increase in their annual rate of electrification. While on average 10% of people in other
developing countries lack access to electricity, in LDCs this remains the case for more than
60% of the population (UNCTAD 2017). Thus, for the LDCs, implementing SDG 7 is mainly about
energy access, and less about how to mitigate emission levels. While most renewable energy
sources have historically been more expensive than fossil fuels, the price gap has narrowed
rapidly in recent year and in some cases, it has even reversed (IRENA, 2018).
Dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation is a major driver of climate change and one
of the biggest climate-related challenges (Rogelj et al. 2015). However, energy is central to
multiple aspects of sustainable development (McCollum et al. 2018). For example, increased
energy eiciency has the potential to create multiple co-benefits for social progress, and
to enhance economic productivity (SDG 8). Moreover, the expansion of renewable energy
production could help jointly fulfil SDG 7 and tackle climate change (SDG 13), but also improve
health (SDG 3) through reduced air pollution (Braspenning Radu et al. 2016) and create
new decent jobs (SDG 8) (Fankhauser et al. 2008). However, there are also important trade-
os – as evidenced, for example, by the role of wood as both an energy source and carbon
sink (Cannell 2003), and by the potential competition over whether to use land to produce
biofuels for energy or for food (central to the SDG 2 to achieve zero hunger) (Hasegawa et
al. 2018). Moreover, hydropower may enhance achieving increase access to energy (SDG 7.1),
and, at the same time, risks increasing competition for water resources (SDG 6) and, through
the building of dams, hurting informal land title holders and marginalized people (SDG 1)
(Winemiller et al. 2016.).
Figure 3: Links between NDC activities and SDG 7 (aordable and clean energy)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
12 Stockholm Environment Institute
Given the important role of the energy sector in tackling GHG emissions, it is not surprising that
most (97%) NDC activities addressing SDG 7 are climate change mitigation activities. However,
the essential role of increased energy access for climate adaptation and the potential of o-grid
renewable sources to provide such access should not be ignored in countries with low energy
access and high risk of climate change impacts. Beyond this, only 31% of the climate activities we
identified provide for quantifiable mitigation targets. In future updates of NDCs, we see room for
improvement to raise the bar for quantifiable targets.
Second-strongest links to NDC activities: life on land (SDG 15)
SDG 15 (life on land) ranks second in terms of links to NDC activities. It calls for protecting,
restoring and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Climate change is a major
driver of terrestrial ecosystem degradation, particularly desertification and biodiversity loss; at
the same time, deforestation, unsustainable land use activities, and biodiversity loss, in turn, drive
climate change. Forests and soils are major carbon sinks and can be used as powerful tools for
climate change mitigation and integrated land-use activities to foster land degradation neutrality
(UNCCD 2017). Activities in countries’ NDCs have a strong focus on issues related to SDG 15,
with 13% of the total number of activities related to this SDG. The most important climate actions
for SDG 15 are forest management, ecosystem conservation and biodiversity, and aorestation.
Several countries also highlight the importance of reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation (REDD+) activities for forest management. Beyond actions concerning forests
and biodiversity, countries are also proposing softer measures, such as development of national
parks and prevention of wildfires and land erosion (Figure 3).
Figure 4: Links between NDC activities and SDG 15 (life on land)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 13
However, climate mitigation activities that can be attributed to SDG 15 do not automatically foster
sustainable development. Large-scale infrastructure projects, for example, can create severe
trade-os between climate change and sustainable development. With regards to REDD+, there is
a lack of coherence between political goals and their translation into institutional structures and
administrative processes. Whereas all mitigation approaches support sustainable development,
there are few related global regulations or requirements, and those that exist are largely voluntary
(Horstmann and Hein 2017).
In terms of SDG targets, more than half of the activities relate to SDG 15.2 (sustainable forest
management, and halting deforestation). In addition, SDG 15.1 (conservation, restoration and
sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems) and SDG 15.3 (restoring
degraded land and combating desertification) are related to significant numbers of activities. In
the context of SDG 15, there are thus many potential synergies between the implementation of
the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. However, there are also gaps. Intended climate action
fail to address issues surrounding species protection, invasive species and genetic resources,
which are all important for achieving this goal. Furthermore, SDG 15 allows for opportunities
to reach out to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in order to
complement its work on ecosystem restoration (Bridgewater et al. 2015). This has largely been
ignored in the NDCs.
In addition to the direct climate connections, several issues such as combating deforestation and
land erosion, which are prominent in the NDC activities for this goal, have important connections
with other SDGs, particularly SDG 2 (no hunger), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 6 (water
and sanitation), in which the protection of mangroves and ecosystem resilience are synergetic
Figure 5: Links between NDC activities and SDG 2 (no hunger)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
14 Stockholm Environment Institute
elements. This indicates that systems of soil, water and biodiversity are intrinsically linked, and
need to be balanced with water, energy and food security to achieve an integrated law-carbon
and climate-resilient sustainable development pathway (Leininger et al. 2018, Müller et al. 2015a).
NDC activities under SDG 15 address climate change mitigation and adaptation in almost equal
numbers (adaptation, 35%; mitigation, 29%; adaptation and mitigation, 22%). Resilient forests and
natural ecosystems are critical to climate change adaptation of communities who benefit from
their ecosystem services. Moreover, while forests and natural ecosystems play the role of carbon
sinks, regulating the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, they could also
become a source of emissions when land-use change takes place. Beyond this, only 15% of the
climate activities that can be attributed to SDG 15 contain quantifiable measures. This illustrates
once more the room for improvement in the process of updating NDCs to enhance quantification
of what can be achieved in the forest and land-use sector to contribute to halting climate change
(Minasny et al. 2017, Lal 2016).
Third-strongest links to NDCs activities: no hunger (SDG 2)
SDG 2 (no hunger) ranks third in terms of the number of connections with NDCs. SDG 2 is
connected to the third-largest share (13% of the total) of NDC activities. Ending hunger,
achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture lie at the
core of this SDG. But most of the activities for SDG 2 center on climate-smart agriculture:
developing the technical, policy and investment conditions to increase food security and
agricultural incomes through climate-resilient, low-emission agriculture (Figure 4). Climate-
smart agriculture is at the core of countries’ climate ambitions to end hunger; this makes it both
a prominent climate action and at prominent matter for sustainable development, as evidenced
by SDG 2.4 (ensuring sustainable agriculture systems for climate change (Lan et al. 2018,
FAO 2016). However, while climate-smart agriculture is being championed by the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the main pathway to reducing emissions and building
resilience in agriculture (FAO 2016), it is also a contested area in which civil society, international
organizations and transnational corporations aim to control the discourse over production,
finance and technology (Newell and Taylor 2018; Clapp et al. 2018).
Eects of climate change can have severe impacts on agricultural production and, hence,
on food production and food security. This is evident in countries’ NDCs, which signal the
importance of climate actions related to food production and improved food security, livestock
resilience, and climate-resistant seeds and crops. On the other hand, few activities relate to
SDG 2.2 (end malnutrition), SDG 2.3 (assuring productivity for the marginalized) or SDG 2.5
(maintaining genetic diversity and traditional knowledge). These issues, together with land
rights and livelihoods for farmers, need to complement SDG 2 ambitions, illustrating the need
for countries’ climate ambitions to be complemented with other national development plans and
strategies to meaningfully integrate both agendas in implementation at the national level.
Climate actions that focus on making agricultural production more sustainable also create
co-benefits for improved water management (SDG 6), raising the need for irrigation; drought-
resistant seeds and integrated water resource management; land-use management and forestry
(SDG 15) through soil management, livestock and agroforestry; and economic growth (SDG 8)
through improved livelihoods.
NDC activities that address SDG 2 mostly tackle climate change mitigation (60%), reflecting
the large share of global greenhouse gas emissions attributed to this sector. However, as the
impacts of climate change begin to be felt more strongly, resilience of agricultural systems
becomes a critical element in ensuring food security around the world. Only 10% of NDC
activities assigned to SDG 2 address climate change adaptation, and just 21% address both
adaptation and mitigation. Moreover, only 7% of the climate activities provide for quantifiable
emission reduction targets. Given the immense attention that was brought to the role of
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 15
agriculture through the “4 per 1000” Initiative
6
to halt climate change in 2015, there may be
opportunities to learn how to best increase the number of commitments that can be quantified.
6 See https://www.4p1000.org/ for further information.
Fourth-strongest links to NDCs activities: sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11)
SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) ranks fourth in terms of the number of links with
NDCs. SDG 11 calls for making cities and other human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable, and aims at improving access for all to housing, public spaces and basic services,
while improving urban planning to guarantee a more sustainable urbanization process. This
reflects and underscores the importance of cities and communities when it comes to halting
climate change (WBGU 2016). More than 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions are generated by
cities (Seto et al. 2014). Moreover, cities are often highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate
change and natural disasters more generally. Cities – and the global urbanization trend – play a
central role in achieving sustainable development worldwide and are of particular relevance to
the prospective success of both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda (Brandi 2018).
SDG 11-related issues are present in 9% of total NDC activities and 82% of all NDCs include
urbanization-related climate activities. At least one NDC activity relates to each of the targets
under this SDG, but the most prominent targets are SDGs 11.2 (accessible and sustainable
transport systems), 11.5 (disaster risk management) and 11.3 (integrated urban planning).
Commitments to clean fuels, public transport, electric vehicles as well as focus on low carbon
intensive transport via ship and railway are at the core of climate actions that pay into SDGs
Figure 6: Links between NDC activities and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
16 Stockholm Environment Institute
11.2 and 11.3, while early warning systems emphasize climate action towards SDG 11.5 (Figure
5). NSDS’s to implement the SDGs could meaningfully complement this transport supply
commitment with transfer schemes to increase access and willingness to use public transport
systems and reduce the number of private vehicles which in return has valuable repercussions for
achieving other SDGs at the same time.
If current urban construction trends continue, limiting global warming to 2°C will be nearly
impossible. Hence, it is not surprising that climate activities have a major focus on cities, and
on issues such as clean transport and air quality. However, given the ongoing trend of emerging
megacities and urbanization of small- to medium-size cities, climate activities could improve
by focusing more on planning that anticipates (informal) settlements and community-based
development issues. If NDCs make integrated urban planning the focus of their commitments, a
more planned process could replace processes that instead adjusting to continuously worsening
situations in emerging medium-size and mega-cities. Transformative urbanization policies can
help to implement both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda (WBGU 2016). SDG 11-related
issues such as transport, infrastructure and disaster risk management link up with several other
SDGs. For instance, new and renovated infrastructure in cities would have to take into account
requirements under SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), while measures to address
potential flooding and other water-related disasters in cities would touch upon SDG 14 (life below
water). SDG 11 has a strong cross-cutting character and contributes to a multitude of SDGs, due
to the complexity and spread of cities.
Cities are expected to provide housing for 68% of the world population by 2050 (UN Habitat
2016), requiring substantial investments for adaptation and climate-proof expansion. Moreover,
as indicated above, cities make up for 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions (Seto et al. 2014).
Therefore, a large share of climate change mitigation activities is expected to take place in cities,
and these can be closely linked to transport system changes (mitigative measures) as well as
disaster risk management (adaptive measures). It is, therefore, not surprising that NDC activities
attributed to SDG 11 tend to tackle climate change mitigation and adaptation in comparable
amounts – 35% adaptation, 47% mitigation, and 17% adaptation and mitigation concurrently.
Beyond this, only 11% of the commitments are quantifiable in their nature of commitment.
Considering the large share of mitigation activities, we see room for improvement especially in the
transport sector, for NDCs to raise ambitions towards more quantifiable emission reduction and
creation of co-benefits for example health through reduction of air pollution.
Fifth-strongest links to NDCs activities: clean water and sanitation (SDG 6)
SDG 6 (clean Water and sanitation) contains targets on resource eiciency, water governance,
transboundary management, and provision of sanitation for all. Transition towards a low-
carbon and climate-resilient society will increase the multiple demands on both water and land
resources (Müller et al. 2015a). Hence, climate change is closely intertwined with the availability
of and demand for water resources. For instance, climate change and extreme weather events
can intensify water scarcity, especially in countries where access to water is already an issue –
making water resource management an important element of adaptation (World Water Council
2018). At the same time, climate change-related flooding can spread water-borne pollution and
diseases, particularly in areas with poor sanitation infrastructure.
In total, 630 NDC activities, equaling 9% of the total number of activities. They relate mainly to
improving water management and increasing eiciency in water supply. At the level of targets,
SDG 6.4 (increase water-use eiciency across all sectors) is the most commonly addressed in
climate activities. Thus, most activities related to SDG 6 focus on water, while sanitation fails
to attract the same level of attention. For example, SDG 6.2 (equitable access to sanitation and
hygiene) receives least attention of the six targets (Figure 6). Room for improvement can be seen
in regard to wastewater treatment; this is an issue area that has potential to address water sector
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 17
mitigation, and, at the same time, to decrease stress in many countries worldwide that face stress
from high pollution levels. Household-level provision of sanitation facilities as such is not in the
radius of climate activities, even though such provision can be an element that meaningfully
complements climate activities when implementing the SDGs at national level.
Achieving SDG 6 is also crucial to achieve multiple other SDGs, such as food security (SDG 2),
health and well-being (SDG 3) and poverty eradication (SDG 1). Beyond these co-benefits from
water activities, water resources are needed as an input to achieve multiple other SDGs, such
as renewable energy from hydropower (SDG 7) (Dombrowsky and Hensengerth 2018, Ringler et
al. 2013, Weitz et al. 2014) as well as responsible production of raw materials and substitutes for
plastic (SDG 12) (Müller, et al. 2015b).
SDG 6 mainly consists of adaptation measures (87%), with only 3% of activities relating to mitigation.
Increasing mitigation opportunities from the water sector remains a relatively untouched issue area
in both academia and policy. However, water management’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions is
not irrelevant. For example, irrigation systems are both energy intensive and require more fertilizer
than most rainfed systems (Siebert et al., 2010). Furthermore, sewage treatment can be a major
source of methane emissions, but this can also be captured as biogas (Never and Stepping 2018).
Sixth-strongest links to NDCs: partnerships for goals (SDG 17)
Addressing climate change requires financial resources, the widespread adoption of new
technologies (Iyer et al. 2018), capacity building, climate-friendly trade policies (Dröge et
al. 2016; Brandi 2017), improved policy coherence, and intensive global cooperation. SDG 17
Figure 7: Links between NDC activities and SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
18 Stockholm Environment Institute
(partnerships for goals) calls for strengthening the means of implementation to reach the goals,
and in particular global partnership to work towards sustainable development. It has no fewer
than 19 targets covering a wide range of areas. These are set out in five subsections: finance,
technology, capacity building, trade and “systemic issues” (policy and institutional coherence). It
is therefore not surprising that SDG 17 is one of the most important SDGs for climate change. In
total, around 7% of NDC activities are connected to SDG 17. The most represented targets of Goal
17 are SDG 17.3 (mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple
sources), SDG 17.6 (enhanced North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation on and
access to science, technology and innovation and enhanced knowledge sharing) and SDG 17.9
(enhanced international support for capacity building in developing countries). In terms of climate
actions, most activities relate to financial resource mobilization, capacity building, research and
technology cooperation. With more than 86% of the NDCs including activities corresponding to
SDG 17, it seems clear that the relevance of international partnerships is truly global (Figure 7).
In the area of finance, SDGs 17.1–17.5 call for mobilization of resources from many sources,
including within developed countries. Developed countries have committed to mobilize US$100
billion a year in climate finance by 2020. As many developing countries condition their NDC
activities on the prospect of assistance and partnership (Pauw et al. 2016), international
development finance for climate action and sustainable development is a critical issue and key
to achieve the long-term goals of the two agendas. Moreover, one of the key objectives of the
Paris Agreement is to make all financial flows consistent with low-carbon and climate-resilient
development pathways. The need for international partnerships and financial support both for
climate mitigation and for adaptation is reflected in the type of identified NDC climate activities
Figure 8: Links between NDC activities and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 19
that are almost equally addressing each area – 21% adaptation, 29% mitigation, 41% adaptation
and mitigation concurrently.
4.2 The middle tier: SDGs with mid-level connections to NDC activities
Beyond the six SDGs with strong connections, several climate activities contribute to other SDGs,
but to a limited extent. The most prominent goal in this category is SDG 9 (industry, innovation
and infrastructure), which is seen as a crucial driver of economic growth and development.
Following is SDG 13 (climate action), with its strong focus on adaptive capacity and climate
education. In this category, there is also SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), which aims
to increase labour productivity and reduce the unemployment rate; SDG 3 (good health and well-
being), where eorts are made to alleviate negative health impacts from climate change; SDG 14
(life below water), focusing on conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine
resources; and lastly, SDG 4 (quality education), which places obtaining a quality education as
a foundation for achieving sustainable development. The remainder of this section presents the
pertinent findings at target and climate action levels for the respective goals, aiming to highlight
potential overlaps and gaps between climate activities and sustainable development.
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9)
SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) lies at the intersection of infrastructure, energy,
and housing. This goal calls for building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and
sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation. Sustained investment in infrastructure
and innovation are seen as crucial for economic growth as well as for low-carbon and
Figure 9: Links between NDC activities and SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
20 Stockholm Environment Institute
climate-resilient development (New Climate Economy 2016). Around 7% of NDC activities
are connected to SDG 9. The majority of relevant climate actions focus on building new and
upgrading existing infrastructure. To do this, issues such as resource eiciency, promotion of
green industry, and revisiting building codes and standards are particularly important.
Under this SDG, more than half of NDC activities relate to SDG 9.4 (upgrading infrastructure,
resource eiciency and new technologies), while 25% relate to SDG 9.1 (resilient infrastructure)
(Figure 8). The implementation of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming requires
substantial investments in cleaner infrastructure (McCollum et al. 2018). On the one hand,
existing infrastructure will need to be upgraded, for instance, by improving eiciency and
reducing emissions of coal power plants, installing carbon capture and storage, but also by
improving energy eiciency in current buildings, greening public transport. On the other hand,
new infrastructure will be essential for a full transition to carbon neutrality, in particular in the
energy sector where renewable energy sources would need to replace existing fossil fuel-based
power plants, and to account for increasing energy demand.
The NDCs recognize that climate-resilient infrastructure is a key factor for decreasing socio-
economic and bio-physical vulnerability. Climate impacts such as sea-level rise, flooding and
other extreme weather events make this SDG particularly important for vulnerable countries.
While new and upgraded infrastructure will be essential for the transition to a low-carbon
economy, this is also needed to increase resilience of communities.
NDC activities in this SDG additionally interact with other sectors, such as housing and industry
(SDG 11) and energy (SDG 7). Many activities discuss new and resilient infrastructure under
the mandate of energy savings and resource eiciency. There are, however, gaps between
Figure 10: Links between NDC activities and SDG 13 (climate action)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 21
NDC activities and the full ambitions of this goal. For example, focus is lacking on the need to
strengthen both the capacities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and ambitions in
climate- and sustainable development-related research and development.
Close to two thirds (63%) of NDC activities connected to SDG 9 contribute to climate change
mitigation, highlighting once more the large number of activities that address infrastructure
upgrades for resource eiciency, buildings codes and green industry, among others. SDG 9 also
contributes to adaptation through development of resilient infrastructure, but to a far lesser
extent. Finally, 93% of all activities are not quantified, but expressed merely in general terms.
Climate Action (SDG 13)
Combating climate change is naturally present in all NDC activities. Failing to address climate
change impacts can undermine progress towards most SDGs (Le Blanc 2015). Many activities
not only declare mitigation targets but also cite the importance of adaptation. While it might
sound strange that SDG 13 climate action) is not the most prominent SDG, a key message from
NDC-SDG Connections is that NDCs go beyond SDG 13, and that climate action is a concern for
the whole spectra of sustainable development (Dzebo et al. 2017). While all NDCs are inherently
connected to climate change, only 6% of activities directly correspond to SDG 13 and its
targets. A reason for this is that the SDG targets are relatively narrow, focusing on resilience
and adaptive capacity (13.1), policy mainstreaming (13.2) and education and awareness (13.3),
which has overlaps with SDG 4.
At the level of targets, the NDC activities most frequently relate to SDG 13.2 (integrate climate
change measures into national policies, strategies and planning) and SDG 13.3 (improve
education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change
mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning), with a bit less focus on SDG 13.1
(strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters
in all countries). Following from the logic of the targets of SDG 13, two-thirds of the activities
relate to climate change adaptation. In terms of climate actions, countries address mainly
issues around mainstreaming climate change into national policies and strategies, increasing
awareness-raising on climate impacts, and on building adaptive capacity (Figure 9).
The 2030 Agenda reflects the centrality of climate change mitigation and adaptation for
global sustainable development. Climate change issues cut across the agenda, appearing in
targets under several other goals. SDG 13 acknowledges that the UNFCCC is the main forum
for negotiating the global climate response. It does not set specific, measurable targets for
mitigation or adaptation, leaving that task to the Paris Agreement. Many activities in SDG 13
refer to themes highly relevant for other SDGs, including energy (SDG 7) and education (SDG
4) as well as resilience and disaster risk management, which appear under several SDGs, most
notably SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG 11 (sustainable cities). However, NDC activities under
SDG 13 disproportionately address climate change adaptation (67%) as compared to mitigation
(9%, and 21% adaptation and mitigation concurrently). This is in part due to the aim of SDG 13
targets, which individually address adaptation (13.1), but not mitigation. Another contributor
is the finding that only 1% of climate activities attributed to SDG 13 are quantifiable. SDG 13 is
mainly about awareness raising and procedural change, and less about transformation towards
a low-carbon society.
Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8)
SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) aims to achieve full and productive employment,
and decent work, for all women and men by 2030. Thus, the main focus areas are:
economic growth and economic development through sustained, inclusive and sustainable
growth; full and productive employment; and decent work for all. Two additional key
elements are: improving resource eiciency and decoupling economic growth from
22 Stockholm Environment Institute
environmental degradation (UNEP 2011; Schandl et al. 2016; Rockström et al. 2017; New
Climate Economy, 2018).
The SDG 8-relevant activities in countries’ NDCs focus mainly on promoting a low-carbon
economy, sustainable tourism, and unemployment reduction. In general, NDCs underscore
the significance of SDG 8, with 4% of NDC activities connecting to this SDG. The bulk of
NDC activities largely relate to just two of the 10 targets: SDG 8.4 (improve global resource
eiciency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from
environmental degradation) and SDG 8.1 (sustain per capita economic growth in accordance
with national circumstances). Recurrent climate actions are promoting a low-carbon economy,
sustainable tourism (also SDG 8.9) and reducing unemployment (also SDG 8.5) (Figure 10).
Limiting global warming to no more than 2°C require a fast and radical transformation of the
economy, while a temperature increase limit of 1.5°C is even more disruptive and requires global
CO2 emissions to reach net zero by 2050 at the latest, as shown by the IPCC Special Report on
Global Warming of 1.5°C (IPCC 2018).
NSDS’s could complement climate policies related to this goal by focusing on issues such as
increased access to financial services, protecting labour rights, and eradicating forced labour. Poor
communities are most vulnerable to climate change impacts due to their low capacity to adapt, and
the fact that they are more often located in disaster-prone areas. In that sense, more than two-thirds
of NDC activities related to SDG 8 focus on adaptation. However, mitigation also plays an important
role for SDG8 because it is expected to substantially transform countries’ economies and aect
labour in various sectors (Babiker and Eckaus, 2007; ILO, 2010; Fankhauser et al. 2008).
Figure 11: Links between NDC activities and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 23
Good health and well-being (SDG 3)
SDG 3 (good health and well-being) focuses on preventing disease, reducing preventable deaths,
and boosting health and well-being by improving access to health care services, promoting
healthy lifestyles, and ensuring a healthy and safe environment for all. NDC activities have great
potential to contribute directly and indirectly to this SDG, both through mitigation – for instance,
by improving air quality (Braspenning Radu et al. 2016) – and through adaptation – for instance,
by increasing resilience of communities in high-risk areas (Watts et al. 2015; Watts et al. 2017).
In that regard, many climate actions relevant to SDG 3 relate to reducing climate-induced health
risks and preventing communicable diseases (see also Wu et al. 2016). Climate change itself can
lead to increased spread of tropical diseases such as malaria. At the same time, climate change
indirectly aects health for all through deteriorating air, soil and water quality. Climate-related
extreme weather events not only directly cause deaths and injuries, but can also harm health care
services and vital infrastructure (Smith et al. 2014).
These important links are, however, poorly reflected in the NDCs as just over 3% of all NDC
activities mention health, indicating a lower priority compared with other sectors. The focus of
SDG 3-relevant climate actions is on SDG 3.3 (end epidemics and other communicable diseases),
SDG 3.9 (reduce illness and deaths from chemicals and pollution), and SDG 3.8 (provide
access to universal health care and vaccinations). Beyond these targets, climate actions are
primarily concerned with reducing climate-induced health risks, and preventing the spread of
communicable diseases (Figure 11).
Beyond these links are opportunities to work with closely linked sectors such as sanitation
(SDG6) and nutrition (SDG2), gender equality (SDG5), and reduced inequalities (SDG10) – all of
which have the potential to play important roles in dealing with health-related climate impacts.
Figure 12: Links between NDC activities and SDG 3 (good health and well-being)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
24 Stockholm Environment Institute
The link to eects on global health of these activities is not very strong; this connection should
be made clearer (Dickin and Dzebo 2018).
NDC activities related to SDG 3 mostly tackle climate change adaptation, as they focus on
provision of universal, improved and resilient health-care systems. However, as indicated
above, climate change mitigation can also play an important role in achieving SDG 3 targets
related to pollutants, particularly through a direct reduction in air pollutants through the
reduced use of fossil fuels.
Life below water (SDG 14)
Climate change is a threat to ocean ecosystems and to coastal communities and livelihoods
that depend on marine resources. SDG 14 (life below water) focuses on conserving and
sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources. The oceans provide livelihoods for
a sizeable share of the world population. Many communities in developing countries depend
heavily on marine resources and fishing. Climate change is linked to the warming of the
world’s oceans. This threatens marine ecosystems and aects global weather patterns. It also
causes sea level rise, which threatens many coastal communities, including major cities, and
accelerates coastal erosion. In addition, warming seas and ocean acidification are likely to
reduce the capacity of the oceans to act as a carbon sink.
Only around 3% of NDC activities relate to SDG 14. This means that the focus on oceans is
well behind other climate-sensitive areas. As Figure 12 shows, NDC activities are primarily
concerned with coastal management and protection (in particular of mangroves), and on
increasing resilience of the fish stock. In terms of SDG targets, SDG 14.2 (protection and
restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems) is relevant to the largest share of these
Figure 13: NDC activities linked to SDG 14 (life below water)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 25
activities, followed by SDG 14.5 (conservation of coastal and marine areas) and SDG 14.7
(increasing economic benefits to small island developing states and least-developed countries
from marine resources). Pertinent issues such as marine pollution, particularly from micro-
plastics, and ocean acidification are largely excluded from NDCs. However, climate change
is an important stressor on marine and coastal ecosystems. It is associated with significant
adverse impacts, including ocean acidification and coral bleaching (Hughes et al. 2003).
Most activities (roughly 70%) related to this SDG are adaptation oriented. Furthermore, despite
its focus on life below water, achieving SDG 14 is highly dependent on terrestrial activities
and vice versa. Thus, ocean health is central to multiple SDGs (Unger et al. 2017; Neumann
and Unger 2019). Issues such as coastal protection, mangrove protection, and land use and
management have strong synergies with SDG 2 (no hunger) and SDG 15 (life on land).
In order to emphasize the lack of ocean-related climate action, in 2017 the UN organized an
Ocean Conference, focused particularly on Small Island Developing States. The aim was to
raise the profile of the many threats that are aecting the world’s oceans and, in turn, people’s
lives. Among the issues addressed were: climate change, land-based pollution, coral bleaching,
overfishing, marine habitat degradation, ocean acidification, and the importance of healthy
oceans to sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs.
Figure 14: NDC activities linked to SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
26 Stockholm Environment Institute
Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12)
SDG 12 intends to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”. Overall,
the production of goods and services today not only depletes resources (water, energy,
rare earths, wood, etc.) and causes environmental degradation (water and air pollution,
waste), but also generates huge amounts of greenhouse gases (Garnett, 2011; Arto and
Dietzenbacher, 2014). The goods and services consumed contribute to climate change
throughout their whole lifecycle – from extraction of raw materials, production and
transportation, to use and end of life (Gardner et al. 2018; Godar et al. 2016). Rethinking and
redesigning production systems, changing consumption habits (reducing consumption, and
by consuming goods with lower environmental footprints) (e.g. Hedenus et al. 2014), and
establishing more circular resource management (Lieder and Rashid 2016) are key to fighting
climate change.
Around 3% of NDC activities are connected to SDG 12, while 62 % of the NDCs include SDG
12-related activities. The majority of climate actions relate to improving waste management,
using waste as a source of energy, recycling and reuse; and recovering methane from
landfills. Two SDG targets are most relevant for SDG12-related NDC activities: SDG 12.4
(environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their lifecycle)
and SDG 12.5 (reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and
reuse). Most activities in the NDCs, thus, focus on recycling and reducing waste. Conversely,
the production side receives little attention. This represents a gap, given that the sustainable
production of goods and services is essential and strongly linked to emissions and other
types of pollution, and to the use of inputs such natural resources and raw materials
(Müller et al. 2015b). The focus on waste and waste-to-energy indicates strong synergies
Figure 15: NDC activities linked to SDG 4 (quality education)
Source: ndc-sdg.info
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 27
between SDG 12 and SDG 7. However, countries’ NDCs also mention agriculture and water
as being important for sustainable consumption and production. In addition, there are
strong links with cities and urbanization, arguably because waste management in urban
areas is often a challenge.
Given the high potential of sustainable consumption and production to reduce GHG emissions,
it is no surprise that almost all NDC activities related to SDG12 that can be clearly categorized
refer to climate change mitigation. However, sustainable approaches, for instance, in agricultural
production, could increase the resilience of soil quality in the face of climate change, and could
also reduce the use of valuable resources, such as water.
Quality education (SDG 4)
Several countries’ NDCs feature activities corresponding to SDG 4 (quality education), which calls
for inclusive and equitable quality education, and the promoting lifelong learning opportunities
for all. Education ensures the next generation´s awareness of climate change, and encourages
the adoption of more climate-friendly lifestyles. However, not more than 3% of all NDC activities
incorporate actions relating to systemic changes in awareness and education.
Climate actions in SDG 4 predominantly focus on awareness raising and provision of vocational
training. The need to strengthen climate change research, and to incorporate climate change
into educational curricula and programmes receive mention, but not to a great degree. Countries
emphasize the need for education and awareness both on the need for general reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions, but also, and particularly, on the need for climate change adaptation,
for example, through community-based education and awareness-raising activities.
With regards to the SDG targets, almost exclusively all activities correspond to SDG 4.7 (ensure
knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development) (Figure 13). Furthermore, from a
climate perspective, SDG 4 overlaps very much with SDG 13 (climate action) through SDG 13.3
(improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change
mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning). Hence, more climate activities
come under SDG 13.3 than under SDG 4. NDC activities related to SDG 4 almost entirely address
climate change adaptation (82%). However, life-style changes; community-based climate action,
education and awareness raising; and community-level capacity building that targets greenhouse
gas emissions reductions hold high potential for climate change mitigation. Thus, these actions
should play a more important in countries’ strategies than they currently do.
4.3 The bottom tier: SDGs with few connections to NDC activities
Some SDGs within the 2030 Agenda focus mainly on the social and political issues. Among these
are: SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 16
(peace, justice and strong institutions). These SDGs are far less connected with NDC activities.
Nevertheless, important connections between these SDGs and climate change should not be
overlooked (Klinsky et al. 2017). This section discusses those NDCs that included activities
relating to these goals.
First, only 71 countries and 2% of total NDC activities address SDG 1 (no poverty). These activities
focus on reducing relative poverty and increasing resilience of vulnerable communities. Climate
plans hardly commit to access to basic services (SDG 1.4) or social protection schemes (SDG
1.3). Yet, climate change can strongly aect vulnerable communities, which can fall further
into poverty as the result of related changes (IPCC 2014). Access to basic services is essential
for increased resilience and adaptation to potential environmental changes. Moreover, social
protection schemes can help those aected to recover more quickly (Burke et al. 2015). In
addition, climate change mitigation measures themselves can impact the poor, for example,
by leading to increased prices through energy or carbon taxes, or through the use of more
28 Stockholm Environment Institute
expensive technologies for electricity production (Hirth and Ueckerdt, 2013; Jakob and Steckel,
2016; Labandeira et al. 2009). Policymakers should take such impacts into account, and
consider complementary measures that protect poor households from such adverse eects.
All themes where access to services and social protection are the vision of an SDG or a target
are left to NSDS’s.
Second, 56 countries included at least one activity related to SDG 5 (gender equality) in their
NDCs. Most of these activities focus on integrating gender considerations into national policy
design, and on increasing protection of women from climate change risk, given that women
are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts (Djoudi et al. 2016). With regards to SDG targets,
most activities relate to SDG 5.5 (ensure women’s full and eective participation and equal
opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life).
Many women lack access to knowledge, resources, capital, and decision-making power, which
makes them more vulnerable to climate change impacts. In particular, SDG 5.5 calls for increasing
women’s full and eective participation and equal opportunities for leadership. There is currently
an underrepresentation of women in climate change negotiations and decision-making at all
levels (Sellers 2016).
Third, only 23 countries’ NDCs included activities that relate to SDG 10 “reducing inequality”.
However, evidence suggests that climate change hurts both poor countries the most, and the
poorest within countries the most (Sovacool et al. 2017). Poor and vulnerable communities are
subject to double exposure; climate change and (economic) globalization that is not inclusive
(O’Brien and Leichenko 2000). Thus, reducing climate risks can also help address poverty.
The majority of climate actions in NDC activities are focusing on inequality reduction, and the
inclusion of low-income and vulnerable communities.
Lastly, SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) has fewest connections to NDC activities.
Just a dozen of countries’ NDCs call for eective and accountable institutions and to integrate
climate change impacts in security measures. For example, fuelwood scarcity has been linked
to violence against women (Patrick 2007). Furthermore, SDG 16 aims to promote rule of law,
strong institutions and participation of all to foster sustainable development. These aspects are
a precondition to achieve a multiple SDGs as well as a cross-cutting theme that runs through the
entire 2030 Agenda (Tosun and Leininger 2017).
5. Discussion
5.1 NDCs are more than climate action plans
In light of the multiple overlaps, the assessed NDCs can be regarded not only as climate plans
but also as de facto sustainable development plans because they include many priorities that
reflect the 2030 Agenda. NDCs were initially intended to indicate countries’ ambitions to reduce
emissions of greenhouse gases. However, as this was a bottom-up driven process, countries
chose to include other priorities beyond mitigation targets (Brandi et al. 2017). The connections
between NDCs and SDGs indicate that the process of coordinating the Paris Agreement and
the 2030 Agenda does not start from zero in these countries but will build on existing potential.
However, while our analysis finds connections between climate activities in countries’ NDCs
and the 17 SDGs as described above, gaps remain. The presence of these gaps underscores the
untapped potential for further alignment of the two agendas. This section highlights the potential
for complementarity with the NSDS’s and identifies gaps where ambitions of the next NDC cycle
could be scaled-up.
As shown in Section 4 climate action overlaps with all 17 goals to various extents, with energy
(SDG7) being the most prominent climate action, followed by land use (SDG14), agriculture
(SDG2), cities (SDG11), water (SDG6), and partnership for the goals (SDG17). However, even
though the connections are numerous at the goal level, this does not always translate into
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 29
strong connections at the target level, which is where implementation of the 2030 Agenda can
meaningfully complement the NDCs. For example, for SDG 6, the focus of commitment made in
the NDCs is mainly on water availability and management, while access to water and sanitation
services receives less attention. Similarly, for SDG 7 (energy), most of the focus lies on increasing
the share of renewable energy and eorts towards energy eiciency, whilst much less attention
addresses increasing energy access to poor and vulnerable populations - a target that is
relevant, both in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
On the one hand, these gaps at target level hint at the potential for complementarity of both
agendas. For example, increasing sanitation services and cleaning of wastewater, (SDGs 6.2 and
6.3) develop co-benefits for water availability (SDG 6.4). Moreover, access to energy (SDG 7.1) is
key to achieve economic development (SDG 8) and at the same time increase in energy access
needs to be based on renewables to avoid creating negative spillover eects for multiple SDGs.
At the same time, in some cases, NDCs might also run a risk of undermining specific development
objectives. While some tensions are sparsely mentioned in the NDCs, explicit acknowledgement
of trade-os is rare and needs further systematic identification and contextualization.
Nevertheless, it is still possible to expose areas where there are few or no connections, which
could indicate potential policy conflicts (Dzebo et al. 2018). It is crucial that countries consider
how trade-os will arise in national implementation. This could be done by taking account
of critical trade-os at the global level, through the HLPF and UNFCCC global stock-take
processes, for example. These processes can highlight areas where critical mediation is needed
to avoid environmental harm, and can draw attention to policies that have the potential to be
counterproductive for social or economic aims.
5.2 NDCs need to be complemented and strengthened
At the same time, several goals - above all SDGs 1 (no poverty), 5 (gender equality), 10 (reduced
inequalities) and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) - have only few connections to climate
action in countries’ NDCs. Notwithstanding this, these SDGs that only appear relatively rarely in
the NDCs play an important role for climate change policy. For example, equity and justice, which
are central to SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG10 (reduced inequalities), are
crucial components of the climate change negotiations (see e.g. Adger et al. 2009; Baer et al. 2009).
Dealing with climate change is closely related to combating poverty because those hit hardest
by climate change are typically the poorest, and their vulnerability stems in large part from their
poverty, which limits access to basic services, adequate housing and financial safety nets.
Across all NDC activities, a key finding of NDC-SDG connections analysis is that not more than
12% of the stated activities are quantified. This means that most policy targets in NDC activities
are described only in general terms. For the specific goals, SDG 7 (aordable and clean energy) is
in the lead, with 31% of the total number of activities quantified, followed by SDG 15 (life on land)
with 17% of activities quantified. An implication from this is that, in terms of implementation of the
NDCs, devising clear implementation strategies may be problematic without undertaking significant
additional work (AfDB 2018).
The number of activities in the NDCs varies across countries. Sri Lanka, Moldova and Jordan
include a large number of activities that relate to many SDGs (Brandi et al. 2017). For example, Sri
Lanka’s NDC includes 189 activities, with SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) being the
most prominent goal in terms of number of activities. On the other side of the spectrum, the EU’s
NDC, which represents commitments of 27 member countries, only includes one single activity
(SDG 15, addressing life on land) beyond its emission commitment. Thus, while some countries
have emphasized the NDC as a key climate policy document, others have prioritized short and
concise statements with little information in their NDCs. At the same time, it is important to note
that a high number of activities is not necessarily an indicator for good and eective governance.
Many countries that include a high number of activities face severe implementation challenges
Countries need
to consider how
trade-os will
arise in national
implementation.
30 Stockholm Environment Institute
of both the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement (AfDB 2018; GIZ 2018). Commitments in the
NDCs still have to be translated into coherent implementation at the national level; and the same
is true for the implementation strategies of the Agenda 2030. While much is unclear regarding the
specifics of national implementation, the two agendas share a similar architecture when it comes
to implementation planning because they include both forward- and backward-looking dimensions.
The next section addresses these dimensions.
5.3 Opportunities for increased policy coherence
The Paris Agreement combines the top-down setting of global goals with NDCs that are formulated
from the bottom up, meaning that countries are free to determine their own priorities and ambitions
to address climate change. Under the provisions of the Paris Agreement, each country will be
asked to submit an updated and more ambitious NDC every five years. The Paris Agreement,
thus, includes institutionalized, ratified and binding forward-looking commitments. In addition, it
contains a backward-looking stocktake process intended to facilitate a periodic review of countries’
collective progress towards achieving global climate change goals. The global stocktake will also
serve as a prelude to countries submitting enhanced NDCs (Milkoreit and Haapala 2017). This is
intended to take place once every five years. Equivalent in its institutionalization, but less binding
and committing, the 2030 Agenda builds in implementation of the NSDS’s, and has a well-elaborated
and institutionalized follow-up and review process. On a periodical basis, countries report their
progress on sustainable development to the HLPF through the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).
There is no standardized form of how to do so. Hence the provided VNRs vary immensely in similar
fashion to the NDCs. Nevertheless, the reporting structures of both global agendas potentially
sets the stage for providing opportunities to compare the complementarity of approaches within
the respective climate or sustainable development process - both over time and across the two
processes at national scales (Table 1).
Table 1: Forward and backward perspectives of both agendas
Paris Agreement 2030 Agenda
Policy plans
(forward looking)
Nationally determined
contributions (NDCs)
National Sustainable Development
Strategies (NSDS’s)
Tracking
achievements
(backward
looking)
Transparency framework
Periodic stocktake process
Follow-up and review mechanism, periodic
Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs)
reporting at the High-level Political Forum
(HLPF)
This institutional structure should allow for aggregating insights at a global scale to seek synergies
and avoid goal conflicts between the two agendas. It should also identify areas of action that some
nations are tackling more prominently or more eectively; provide information about how worthwhile
methods could be replicated; highlight issue areas that require more attention for implementation;
and generate knowledge about how to best undertake meaningful action. In addition, it could
help international development agencies and the multilateral development banks to channel
future financial assistance more eiciently. The reporting structures of both global agendas oer
opportunities to provide insights that compare complementarity of approaches within the respective
process over time, as well as across the two processes at national scales. It also indicates a need for
monitoring and evaluation systems for coherent implementation (Persson et al. 2016).
The implementation of these universal and, thus far, vaguely defined targets of enhancing policy
coherence will result in dierent implementation approaches at national levels. For this reason,
attention needs to shift towards understanding the domestic drivers and barriers for implementing
the global goals in a national context (Keohane and Victor 2016). Domestic politics will be crucial
in determining the ability of countries to transform global goals into actions on the ground. At the
national level, goal conflicts cannot be resolved through technical measures; rather they represent
Connections between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda 31
political dilemmas, and are manifestations of deep-seated interests, institutions, and ideologies at
the national level (Persson 2016). Thus, the actual impacts of the two agreements will depend on
whether they can be used by domestic groups favoring climate action and sustainable development
as points of leverage in domestic politics. This is referred to as a “two-level game” (Putnam 1988),
simultaneously involving international and domestic politics. For a truly ambitious national climate
policy in the medium and long terms, coherence between climate change, sustainable development
and other important policy targets and objectives adopted is crucial. Hence, policy coherence will
most likely be enhanced by learning processes across and within countries.
More broadly, to improve coherence in the context of the implementation of the Paris Agreement
and the Agenda 2030 strengthened coherence is needed at various levels: between global
and national goals; across international agendas and processes; between economic, social and
environmental policies; between dierent sources of finance; and between dierent actions of multi-
actors and stakeholders (OECD, 2014). This will demand coordination throughout the policy cycle.
There should, for example, be horizontal coherence through coordination between line ministries. At
the same time, ideally, coherence goes beyond the state level and is also strengthened by non-state
actors, including civil society, businesses and development organizations. However, non-state actors
have so far been mostly focusing on closing narrow functional gaps (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions
reduction), and this approach may not lead to policy coherence without deliberate consideration
towards this challenge (Chan et al., 2019).
6. Conclusions and next steps
Climate change is a multi-level and multi-sectoral problem with far-reaching implications
for most aspects of social life. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on the extent
to which climate change connects with the broader sustainable development agenda.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are critical tools; they are the primary means for
governments to indicate to the international community the specific steps countries will take to
tackle climate change and achieve the Paris Agreement. The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) are universally adopted goals that provide a shared blueprint for a sustainable future
that leaves no one behind. This paper analysed how countries’ NDCs connect with the 17 SDGs
of the 2030 Agenda. It shows that NDCs not only address climate change but also promote
sustainable development. It finds that NDCs connect with all 17 SDGs, but to varying extents.
The strongest links between the NDCs and the SDGs are found in the areas of land use, food,
energy and water. By contrast, many SDGs are highly under-represented in NDC activities;
in particular, those addressing the following goals: no poverty (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG
5), reduced inequalities (SDG10), and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16). More
concrete activities that connect climate change to these areas should be included as countries
strengthen or add to their next iteration of NDCs.
At the national level there is growing complexity in sustainability and climate policymaking and
action, where possible conflicts and synergies abound among a multiplicity of actors regarding
various goals (Persson and Runhaar 2018). Evidence of eective orchestration between NDCs
and SDGs is largely absent at the national level, where the implementation responsibilities for
both chiefly lie (Keohane and Victor 2016). To understand viable ways to capitalize on potential
links and synergies, knowledge is urgently needed at national levels of governance, where the
chief context-specific challenges to policy coherence occur.
Countries can learn from each other’s approaches to policy planning, budgeting, monitoring
and reporting. An integrated approach oers greater leverage for advancing the two agendas
- simultaneously allowing governments to step up ambition and impact, and to avoid costly
and counterproductive trade-os. Distinct SDG- and NDC-led institutions can overcome their
weaknesses and build on their respective strengths for mobilizing government and society
A key finding: only
12% of the stated
activities are
quantified. That is,
policy targets in
NDC activities are
described only in
general terms.
32 Stockholm Environment Institute
around both agendas. Such eorts should be supported by more integrated interventions from
development partners.
By analysing the content of NDCs through the SDG-lens, and by underlining the connections
between the NDCs and the SDGs, we demonstrate that the actions outlined in the NDCs foster
national development priorities and strategies that reflect the 2030 Agenda. Increasing the
transparency about and understanding of these connections can contribute to leveraging buy-
in for ambitious climate action across multiple stakeholder groups, including the government
and broader society. This in turn can provide the basis for increasing the ambition of future
NDCs. As discussed above, there is room for improved policy coherence from two perspectives.
First of all, countries should design their future National Sustainable Development Strategies
(NSDS’s) in ways that align that align with their NDCs. They need to complement the NDC
activities by focusing on issues that have not been addressed, and by avoiding uncoordinated
– and costly – duplication of eorts. Second, new and updated NDCs need to take account of
existing NSDS’s. Countries could use future NDC updates to more closely align their climate
actions with the SDGs. This can further promote the buy-in of dierent types of stakeholders,
and can increase chance of promoting higher ambition.
At the same time, there is further potential to go beyond the analysis in this paper by examining
both Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and NSDS’s. This would allow a broader comparison
of climate change through a sustainable development lens, and identify additional synergies,
overlaps, gaps and conflicts. Assessing the UNFCCC stocktaking process will help to highlight at
an aggregate level how far countries have come – and how far they have to go – in achieving the
goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. This would identify future needs as well as
help avoid potential duplication, conflicting, and ineective practices related to both agendas.
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