The Challenge

The science is clear: countries have a short window of time to take the urgent action necessary to limit average global temperature rise to a safer 1.5 °C. Global warming is already causing long-lasting changes to our climate system and threatens lives and livelihoods around the world. We have a once-in-a generation opportunity - through the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - to ensure a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for all.

UNDP's Climate Promise

The Climate Promise is UNDP’s response to this challenge. Tackling the climate crisis requires that all countries make bold pledges under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause global warming. The Climate Promise is our commitment to ensure that any country wishing to increase the ambition of their national climate pledge is able to do so.

Our Promise support draws upon UNDP’s extensive portfolio of expertise across priorities such as energy, forests, water, resilience, agriculture, health, youth, finance, governance, gender equality and green jobs. It also builds upon UNDP’s established track record in supporting governments to discuss, design and deliver climate action under Paris Agreement.

UNDP has agreed Climate Promise workplans with 119 countries – making it the world’s largest offer of support for the enhancement of countries’ climate pledges.

How does it work?

UNDP’s Climate Promise provides five key technical areas of support to help countries take bold action to reduce their emissions, increase their resilience to climate impacts and support sustainable development priorities. Working closely with our partners, we work together on climate action across government and society to advance equality, tackle poverty and strengthen social and environmental sustainability. This includes addressing key cross-cutting issues as demonstrated in this word cloud from Climate Promise plans.

UNDP’s Climate Promise and COVID-19

As part of UNDP’s overall support to countries to prepare, respond and recover from COVID-19 health crisis, our Climate Promise services are being adjusted to bolster critical government efforts to address climate action within their pandemic response by using their pledges to “green” stimulus packages and longer-term investments and development plans. This way, we can help to ensure that vulnerable communities are protected against the crises of today, while also designing a more resilient and equitable tomorrow. 

Mobilizing all People for Climate Action through Mission 1.5

More and more global citizens, especially young people, are mobilizing to demand climate action but sometimes they struggle to have their voices heard by governments. At the same time, governments often lack access to reliable information about what their citizens think about climate action. Mission 1.5 uses mobile gaming technology to provide a bridge between citizens and governments – empowering people to cast a vote for the actions they think their government should take and aggregating the data to inform policymakers on the world’s preferred climate actions to keep our planet safe for future generations.

Tools and Knowledge Products

Climate Promise Quality Assurance Checklist   is designed to support governments, civil society, and other stakeholders to reflect on the revision processes and outcomes of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).