Exploring Sectoral Climate Ambition Under the Paris Agreement: the Case of Waste Management Targets in NDCs

The Paris Agreement's 'pledge and review'-process introduces a so-called 'domestic turn' to global climate governance. Under its hybrid approach, Parties have to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every 5 years, which are then subjected to review under a global stocktake. In response to this increased level of transparency and national involvement in global target-setting, researchers have set out to investigate both the overall ambition levels of these NDCs, as well as the inclusion of a variety of issue areas in NDCs. This includes analyses of equity, conditional targets, health, etc. Few of these studies, however, combine the comparative, explanatory approach used in overall ambition studies, with a deeper dive into sectoral targets. This paper aims to fill this gap through a case study of waste management targets in NDCs. Waste management is a quintessential local issue with broad global implications through, among others, the international trade of waste and other hazardous substances. According to the Climate Watch NDC Explorer, waste management targets are already present in the NDCs of 129 countries, with in total 730 sectoral waste targets, measures, or policies. This analysis combines content analysis of NDCs to extract and categorise waste management targets with quantitative comparative analysis to investigate the drivers of waste management target formulation in NDCs. As such, it aims to contribute to the understanding of ambition under the Paris Agreement, as well as to the broader understanding of waste management and its presence in global climate governance.