Immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors are needed to keep the goal of maintaining global temperature rise below 1.5°C within reach. Many countries have increased their ambition to reduce emissions in their NDCs. Collectively the ambition is still not high enough to stay below 1.5°C.

Ambitious targets are not sufficient on their own—policies need to be implemented to meet those targets. In this paper, we set out a concise framework to check from an early stage whether policies are being implemented with a view towards achieving a country’s NDC. This early check is important as policy outcomes and impacts on greenhouse gas emissions are typically only measurable several years after implementation, leaving little time for course correction if implementation of the policy is weak.

This implementation check is an additional tool that enables stakeholders to evaluate the implementation status of policies and hold governments to account. These independent assessments are especially valuable in the run-up to the Global Stocktake, given that formal processes under the UNFCCC are not set up to fulfil this remit.