Ecuador has ratified the Paris Agreement in July 2017. Therefore, its first Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement is from 2019. For the purposes of this analysis we consider the 2019 NDC an updated version of the 2015 INDC.

Ecuador’s updated 2019 NDC was submitted in March 2019. We consider that the country has enhanced its climate ambition, moving from targets in two sectors to an aggregate target with broader sectoral coverage and a separate target for LULUCF, with a clear indication of conditional and unconditional targets.

The NDC addresses both mitigation and adaptation and was the product of a strong participatory process. Ecuador is the first country to present an NDC with a gender mainstreaming approach, which is a major advance. The NDC was also the first to comply with decision 4/CMA.1 from COP 24. A Long-Term Strategy, under development, is expected to be aligned with the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement and establish 2030 and 2050 targets.

The commitments in the 2019 NDC demonstrate a high level of national planning and intergovernmental coordination on climate change. Nonetheless, ambition is linked to financial needs, which is stressed throughout the NDC in its conditional and unconditional targets. Taking into account the country’s marginal participation in global emissions, we conclude that Ecuador’s NDC has a Short Way to Go to become the NDC We Want.