How to use NDC-SDG Connections

With the NDC-SDG Connections tool you can explore the connection between national climate action plans submitted under the Paris Agreement as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The tool allows to visualize and to compare SDG connections within and between individual NDCs, regions, country groupings or globally. In addition, in the latest version of the tool, it is now possible to compare between first and updated NDC submissions.

This first page provides a brief comparison between first and updated NDCs. It shows whether individual goals have increased or decreased in number of related climate activities. Moreover, from here, you can directly access a more detailed global analysis, or select the page of an SDG, a country or a region or country group (described below).

On the SDG detail pages you can explore how NDCs correspond to a specific SDG and its targets. Use the toggle on the right to select between first and updated NDCs. Use the red box on the left to choose a specific country's NDC. You can also select the global average for all countries or country groupings (by region or by income). If you want to compare one country or country grouping with another, select it in the "Compare with" box. The second country´s or country grouping´s data is then shown in grey. If nothing is selected for comparison, global averages are shown by default.

The visualisation box includes two options. For the radial, the inner circle shows how climate activities relate to specific SDG targets. The size of the segments reflects the share of all activities corresponding to this specific SDG and relating to each target. The outer circle shows the shares of different types of climate action included in those activities. By default, it shows actions for all targets. For the tree map, the first figure shows the distribution of SDG targets, like the inner circle of the radial does. The second figure shows the distribution of climate actions included in the activities related to that specific SDG, same as the outer circle of the radial.

On the SDG pages, you can also assess how countries and country groupings are prioritizing individual SDG targets or climate actions. Countries and country groupings that have more connections related to that SDG are shown first. Use the scroll function on the right side to see all data.

On the country pages, you can visualize the distribution of climate activities across all SDGs and how these are connected to one another. Here, you can select a specific country, a country grouping or global coverage. The default is set to show the global coverage. Select the country or country grouping you are interested from the search menu.  

The first entry point is the global page, which shows the aggregate analysis of all NDC across all 17 SDGs. This radial diagram shows how NDC climate activities correspond with the themes of the 17 SDGs. The larger the coloured segment for an SDG, the more NDCs include activities related to it. Here, you can also use the toggle the choose data for first NDCs or updates NDCs. Move the cursor over an SDG to see a short summary. Click on the relevant coloured segment of interest for more detail about the connections related to this particular SDG.

You can also select a specific country or country grouping (i.e. continent, region, economic category). In the same way as the global page, you can analyse how a specific country or a group of countries’ NDC connects with the 17 SDGs. Click on a specific SDGs to expand on it. 

If you want to compare one country or country grouping with another, select it in the "Compare with" box. The second country´s or country grouping´s data is then shown in grey. If nothing is selected for comparison, global averages are shown by default. The values shown for global and for country groupings are averages across all NDCs. This allows for a better comparison between individual countries and the global or country grouping.

On the country page you can also explore the broader synergies across multiple goals. The synergy visualization allows for exploration of how goals are linked through various cross-cutting socio-economic themes and vice versa. This figure includes 38 socio-economic sectoral themes which are analysed across all NDC activities. Some are closely related to a particular SDG, some refer to many more. The synergy visualization therewith shows how climate action can support multiple SDGs at the same time.

Here, you can choose between visualizing the top five cross-cutting themes for each SDG or the links across all 38 themes. The network figure immediately shows the top themes mentioned in the chosen countries NDCs as well as their linkages to single SDGs. Hover over one theme to see which SDGs the theme refers to, or over one SDG to see the links to relevant themes. The bigger the themes appear, the more linkages they show to multiple SDGs. The thickness of the line indicates how many NDCs refer to a single theme.

Lastly, you can also explore and assess how countries and country groupings are prioritizing among the 17 SDG. Compare a specific country with country groupings and other countries. Use the scroll function on the right side to see all data.

On the comparison page you can see how each SDG has evolved over time, both in terms of absolute number of activities and each SDG’s relative share between first and updated submission.

Additionally, for each SDG, you can also explore in detail the relative change for each target and climate action.

Please note that until all updated NDC submissions have been published and updated, the data shows only those NDC submissions that have been updated and compares these with their prior version (currently 95 NDCs).

In case a country did not specify relevant activities in its NDC, no data is available to show on an SDG page. See the section below "How did we do this?" to learn more about the methodology behind the analysis and, for example, how “activity” or “action” are defined. This message can also appear if a country’s updated NDC was not yet analysed.