Research project NDC ASPECTS

Assessing Sectoral Perspectives on Climate Transitions to support the Global Stocktake and subsequent NDCs (National climate protection contributions)

The EU project NDC ASPECTS develops sectoral and national transformation strategies for countries worldwide, whose national contributions to greenhouse gas reduction (NDCs) are clearly behind the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement so far. The project focusses in particular on four key sectors: Industry, transport, the building sector and land use, including its interaction with the energy sector.The objective is to contribute to notably more ambitious future NDCs in these countries.

Research project NDC ASPECTS

 

Duration

May 2021 to September 2024

Funded by

European Union (Funding Programme “Horizon 2020”, Grant Agreement No. 101003866)

Project participants

  • Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Germany
  • Institute of Networked Energy Systems
  • Institute of Vehicle Concepts
  • Asociacion BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change - Klima Aldaketa Ikergai, Spain
  • E3 Modelling AE, Greece
  • Fondation Institut De Recherche Pour Le Developpement Durable Et Les Relations Internationales, France
  • HOLISTIC IKE, Greece
  • Indian Institute of Management, India
  • Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia
  • Ita-Suomen Yliopisto, Finland
  • The University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc., USA
  • TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY, China
  • University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

The NDC ASPECTS project will provide inputs to the Global Stocktake, a fundamental steering and evaluation tool under the Paris Agreement (PA), and support the potential revision of existing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the PA’s parties, as well as the development of new NDCs for the post 2030 period. The project will particularly focus on four sectoral systems that are highly relevant in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions they produce yet have thus far made only limited progress in decarbonisation. To advance these transformations, it will be required to understand and leverage the Eigenlogic of those systems and take into account specific transformation challenges.

These sectors are transport and mobility (land-based transport and international aviation and shipping), emission intensive industries, buildings, agriculture, forestry and land-use, including their supply by and interaction with the energy conversion sector. For each of those sectors, the project consortium will undertake „Sectoral Conversations” to co-create evidence-based narratives with sectoral experts and stakeholders drawing on the consortium’s extensive networks. These narratives can then be translated into global pathways informing the Global Stocktake as well as national pathways for strategically selected countries for each of the four sectors.

As an input to the Sectoral Conversations, the project teams will systematically assess transformation challenges and opportunities (economic, technological, political/institutional, capacity and awareness) taking into account experiences with the implementation of the first round of NDCs as well as model-based quantitative analyses. An additional contribution lies in the identification of ways and means to improve international governance to enable and facilitate sectoral transformations.

The Institute of Networked Energy Systems has the lead for the quantitative sectoral modelling and analysis within NDC ASPECTS. As key results of this working area, transformation pathways for a deep decarbonisation of the four sectors are elaborated and assessed by the partners in the quantitative and qualitative manner. With its strong expertise in energy systems modelling and networked energy systems, the institute evaluates the synergies from integrating the sectors and provides the modelling of the energy conversion system. Closely connected, the institute is responsible for the cross-workpackage harmonisation of the methods and data in the project. Broadening the scope from sectoral transformation routes into national decarbonisation pathways, it elaborates and assesses quantitative scenarios for selected countries worldwide for supporting highly ambitious NDCs. The DLR Institute of Vehicle Concepts is the quantitative lead partner for the transport sector within NDC ASPECTS.

Further Information on the Project NDC ASPECTS: