About the Project

The Paris Agreement’s cycle of ambition requires individual countries to periodically review and update their national pledges, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the long-term global climate goal of limiting temperature change to 1.5°C. With the conclusion of the first Global Stocktake demonstrating that the world is not on track and with continued growing global emissions, there is a real urgency to halt and reverse emissions growth and achieve significant reductions over the next decade.

The ongoing third NDC cycle of ambition enhancement under this Paris-driven process offers an opportunity to set the highest possible ambition within each country's context, through absolute emissions reduction targets that cover all GHG emissions from all sectors of the economy. While this nationally determined process has catalyzed improved global emissions trajectories, the diverse, nationally specific aspect of such targets poses immense challenges for domestic and international stakeholders to understand what a “good” target looks like for any individual country—targets that simultaneously reflect a high level of national ambition, that have a clear and plausible policy strategy for implementation, and are robust, reflecting national priorities in different country contexts.

The Center for Global Sustainability (CGS): Country Climate Ambition Project aims to fill the analytical gaps by producing a set of detailed, country-specific analyses in a consistent, robust, and integrated approach, complementary to various global top-down research, to better inform individual country ambition and support the Paris process. With in-depth assessments of key emitting countries, this website provides the latest summary – with regular updates – of CGS analyses on plausible, high-ambition country pathways that are based on our detailed sectoral modeling, data-driven empirical analysis, deep country knowledge and international research collaboration, and strategic policy engagements. In addition to the economy-wide, all-GHG emissions outcomes, our detailed analyses also highlight required sectoral transitions, priority policy actions, and the contribution of subnational actions to deliver the high-ambition pathways. 

This analysis provides current assessments and actionable policy recommendations for the major emitting countries. The initial round of assessments focuses on twelve (12) major emitting countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, South Africa, and the US - with additional country assessments and updates to be added in the coming months. In addition, our assessments also look at the aggregate global outcome of the high-ambition country pathways and the potential to limit peak temperature close to 1.5°C.