How is climate ambition measured?

FAQS about the Climate Ambition

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3. How is climate ambition measured?

It is a complex matter to try to quantify the level of ambition of the 197 countries that have signed the Paris Agreement and to know in what state the energy transition is in each one of them, according the ambition they have presented.

NDC Partnership puts it this way: “As countries work to reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate, there is a common challenge: it is not possible to properly manage what cannot be measured, reported and verified. It is necessary to evaluate whether efforts to mitigate climate change are being effective through measures that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and whether these measures are efficient and robust enough to ensure compliance with the climate commitments that each Country has done.

Under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) requires countries to establish strong national monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems that in turn will improve and guide their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). For developing countries, including those in the Latin American and Caribbean region, the lack of solid MRV systems represents a technical, technological and financial challenge, as countries assume quantitative commitments vis-à-vis the rest of the planet to reduce their emissions of GHG.”

For now, the main metrics that can be performed are global. One of them is the quantification of the “Parts per million” (PPM) of CO2 in the atmosphere. The other is the measurement of world temperature. Both have not stopped growing and in the short term it is difficult to stop them due to the lack of understanding of the problem by large emitters of greenhouse gases.