Prepared by individual countries ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are a powerful framework for setting out national climate action priorities. Ongoing revisions to NDCs guide national strategies to address the challenges of climate change, with climate-resilient infrastructure – and water – key to the success of these efforts. 

Under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, governments have committed to deliver drinking water and sanitation to the 2 billion of the world’s population who lack access to safely managed drinking water and the 4.5 billion who are without sanitation services by 2030. The Green Climate Fund is the principal mechanism for the mobilisation of climate funds and one of the financial backbones of the Paris Agreement, yet there are uncertainties about how the necessary increased investments to achieve SDG 6 will be funded.

This briefing note analyses the NDCs of non-Annex 1 countries to the Paris Agreement and explores the role of climate funds and emerging changes in private investment frameworks to inform key policies around international climate and water challenges.