Synopsis

The year 2015 was a significant turning point for both the sustainable development and climate agendas with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement on climate change. National governments are now facing the challenge of implementing these two deeply intertwined and interdependent agendas in a manner that fosters consistencies and mutual reinforcement, while maximizing scarce resources, catalyzes information sharing and technology development and enhances capacities.

This paper explores the extent of alignment between these agendas in a concrete way – demonstrating that climate actions communicated in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement have the potential to generate mutual benefits with at least 154 of the 169 SDG targets.