The Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals: evolving connections

There is growing evidence that climate action necessitates a transition that addresses all dimensions of sustainability. Similarly, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda cannot be successfully implemented without strong action on climate change. The NDC-SDG Connections tool, developed jointly by SEI and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), shows how activities in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) connect to all 17 SDGs.

NDC-SDG Connections allows users to explore how NDC activities (i.e. statements identifying a strand of future activity, conditional or unconditional on financial support) connect to the ambitions of the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets, both globally and for individual countries and country groupings. It reveals how NDCs directly contribute to the SDGs and that they are essentially both climate action plans and sustainable development strategies at the same time.

This policy brief, which builds on updated data from NDC-SDG Connections, presents a comparative analysis of how NDCs have developed over time with regards to the 2030 Agenda. It concludes with policy recommendations.