Posted on September, 19 2019

For those of us in the climate community who have been attending UN climate change conferences (COPs) for many years, talking in acronyms is a no-brainer.

But do people know what we are talking about when we mention NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), the centerpiece of the Paris Agreement? Do you know what the difference between NDCs and LTS (Long-Term Strategies) is? And how does this relate to Greta Thunberg and the youth on the streets demanding climate action, major climate science reports (from the IPCC) and the UN’s Climate Action Summit?

Go to our new website - NDCambition.org - and you will find out.

Climatese 101

We thought a good way to try to address all those questions would be to put together information in accessible language for those interested in climate issues and negotiations... and who don't have the time to take a "climatese" course. We are counting on you to help us win the fight against the climate crisis.

We know your time will be much better spent in lobbying your government, taking to the streets with sharp demands or just sharing your views with your friends and peers, instead of trying to decipher a library full of jargon. We hope our website can help you.

The information on our website is not necessarily new, just "translated" and made accessible. We also put together a myriad of great tools, reports and other resources that could be useful to you if you are a student, a civil servant, an activist or a business leader.

Creating a vision for increased ambition

We also think of our website as a platform to galvanise consensus among what we need to push countries to do with a national focus, bringing the call for "enhanced ambition" down to earth. We want to build "the NDCs we want to see" with inputs from all sectors of society, country by country, starting with the G20 as they produce about 81% of total greenhouse gas emissions and about 78% of the world's GDP. Those countries should be the early movers in presenting bold plans at COP 25 in Chile this December.

The site is a work in progress and we want to update it with strong commitments on the run to COP 26 in 2020. We have no time to lose and we need all hands on deck to put the climate boat into the right course. We will only make change happen by working together on all fronts: negotiations, demonstrations, lobbying and rethinking our personal choices.

We hope that by sharing information through this website, we will be able to help support a broad climate movement that keeps growing and growing.

Fernanda de Carvalo is the global policy manager for WWF’s Climate and Energy Practice. She is based in Brasilia, Brazil.