Under the Paris Agreement, all countries committed to producing a long-term climate plan.

In the EU, WWF MaxiMiseR’s recent report showed that only 13 out of the 28 Member States have submitted such a strategy.

Are non-EU countries doing any better? Leia Achampong, MaxiMiseR Climate Policy Officer conducted a review of low emissions strategies from countries outside of the EU, based on a questionnaire that was sent to 168 countries. Unfortunately only 11 out 168 countries responded to the questionnaire.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one such respondent, and has set a 50% reduction target by 2050 in its long-term strategy, which was developed in collaboration with civil society, officials and academic institutions. However it’s not a sector wide strategy, as it only covers the energy, agriculture and mobility sectors.

Overall the key finding is that among the 11 countries that responded, six have a long term strategy (LTS) in place and another four are working on producing one. Only Mongolia said that it hadn’t started to work on a strategy.

Other key findings in the MaxiMiseR non-EU questionnaire:

Many of the LTS submitted do not include a 2050 target year
There is little political commitment as LTS are either not binding or do not receive enough high-level support
Key sectors such as aviation and transport are missing in many of the strategies
Most strategies do not have a well developed, dynamic review process
None of the countries foresee any regional cooperation with neighbouring countries
Stakeholder involvement is an essential part of most LTS, yet there is room for improvement on who is involved

Common problems that these countries say they face include a lack of expertise, little financial support or low awareness. Many of those challenges on how to develop a comprehensive long term development strategy, are addressed in MaxiMiseR’s guidance report “Planning to succeed”

More country specific challenges can be found in the report.