New York – Japan has made a new contribution of approximately USD 42 million in climate funding to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to chart pathways for developing countries to implement their national climate pledges – also known as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs.

Japan’s contribution will support UNDP’s work on the ground in 23 countries and territories to realize national targets across Asia-Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Africa, and Arab State regions. It will accelerate climate action that leads to clean energy and net-zero pathways and help vulnerable communities and fragile settings to be more resilient to climate impacts.

"As the impacts of climate change intensify and countries are faced with major decisions about their future, some of the world’s most vulnerable communities need more resources and support to strengthen their capacity to take decisive climate action,” said UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. “This targeted contribution by Japan to UNDP’s ambitious Climate Promise initiative will assist 23 countries and territories to build a net-zero future, helping them to translate their climate pledges into high-impact action on the ground. This includes innovative ways to decarbonize, accelerate the clean energy transition, and adapt to the worsening effects of our changing climate.”

The Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations states that “climate change is a global threat that countries must respond to collectively. In partnership with UNDP, Japan will promote social transformation in developing countries by encouraging them to invest in clean energy technologies, to promote the development of next-generation energy infrastructure, and to diffuse appropriate technologies necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, Japan is keen to support the implementation of NDCs by each country and employment of adaptation measures through the projects in 23 countries and territories.”

UNDP’s Climate Promise is the largest global offer of support to countries on their national pledges to the Paris Agreement. Together with its partners, the initiative currently supports 120 countries, representing 80 percent of all developing countries worldwide, to define their NDCs, by engaging stakeholders across Government and society. To date, 94 of these countries have submitted NDCs to the UNFCCC and are now working toward their implementation.

During the first week of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, last November, UNDP launched the next phase of the Climate Promise - From Pledge to Impact - scaling up its support to turn NDC targets into concrete action. Japan becomes the largest supporter of this phase of the groundbreaking initiative and joins the longstanding funding partners Germany, Sweden, EU, Spain, Italy, as well as new funding partners including the United Kingdom, Belgium, Iceland, and Portugal, to accelerate these efforts in collaboration with the NDC Partnership.

The Government of Japan is also a vital partner in UNDP’s mission to end extreme poverty and accelerate the structural transformations to recover forward better and greener from the COVID-19 pandemic.

More information can be found on the Climate Promise website. 

Media Contacts:

UNDP Climate Promise Communications   | Mehmet Erdogan mehmet.erdogan@undp.org

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