The Paris Agreement was agreed in 2015 at the 21st United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP 21), and came into force a year later. Almost all countries are currently signatories of the Agreement.

The objective of the NDC Transparency Check is to provide a robust reference to assess whether the communication of Parties on the proposed mitigation in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is clear, transparent and understandable, in terms of the requirements set out in the Paris Agreement, its accompanying decision (1/CP.21) and the Annex to decision 4/CMA.1, which sets out the “information to facilitate clarity, transparency and understanding of nationally determined contributions”.

Legally, the Annex is only binding from the second NDC onwards. However, Parties are “strongly encouraged” to apply the Annex to updated NDCs, due 2020.

The Canadian government is revising the current NDC to update its commitment in relation to the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals, under the country’s specific circumstances. In this context, the NDC Transparency Check provides information to support the process of a revision, especially in relation to the clarity of the proposed mitigation outcomes. This could help not only to provide additional clarity on the Canada’s mitigation goals and their underlying policies and measures, but also to provide clarity on the likely collective outcome of mitigation efforts as committed to in the NDCs.

The detailed methodology as well as other assessment are available on: www.climate-transparency.org