Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) are actions that developing countries voluntarily undertake to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and are supported and recognized by international climate finance and technology transfer.
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are pledges made by countries under the Paris Agreement to outline their national climate actions, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change impacts.
KMS conducts Technical Feasibility assessments to evaluate the feasibility of proposed NAMAs, including technological, economic and environmental considerations. INDC assessment include providing technical expertise in climate change mitigation and adaptation, including sector specific knowledge and best practices These assessments ensure alignment of NAMAs and INDCs with international climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement and national policies and priorities.
From INDCs to NDCs and where NAMAs fit
A quick point of language, because it is confusing. Before the Paris Agreement, countries submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, INDCs, as their climate pledges. Once a country formally joins the agreement, its INDC becomes its NDC, its Nationally Determined Contribution. NDC is the term in use now. NAMAs sit underneath, the specific mitigation actions a developing country takes to deliver on those commitments often backed by international climate finance and technology transfer.
How KMS supports national climate policy work
Kanaka Management Services (KMS Group) works at the policy level, not just the project level. The work is technical feasibility assessment of proposed NAMAs across the technology, the economics and the environmental impact and assessment of NDC commitments with sector specific expertise in mitigation and adaptation. This kind of advisory supports the governments, institutions and programmes responsible for national climate action. The thread through all of it is alignment: making sure national actions line up with the Paris Agreement and with a country’s own policies and priorities.
This is the layer above project work and it connects to it. The commitments a country makes under its NDC and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, set the frame that individual carbon projects operate inside. That frame runs down through the earlier UNFCCC CDM and JI mechanisms, the mitigation and adaptation policy work that translates targets into methods, and the carbon projects developed under international standards that deliver against them. KMS works at both ends, the policy that sets the targets and the projects that meet them. The wider picture sits in our carbon credit knowledge hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is a NAMA?
A Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) is a climate action a developing country takes voluntarily to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NAMAs are recognised and often supported by international climate finance and technology transfer. They are the practical mitigation measures a country uses to deliver on its wider climate commitments.
What is the difference between an INDC and an NDC?
They are the same pledge at different stages. Before the Paris Agreement, countries submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). When a country formally joins the agreement, its INDC becomes its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). NDC is the current term. NDCs are updated over time as countries raise their ambition.
What does KMS assess in NAMA and NDC work?
For NAMAs, KMS runs technical feasibility assessments covering the technology, the economics and the environmental impact of a proposed action. For NDCs, it provides technical expertise in mitigation and adaptation with sector specific knowledge. Both check that national actions align with the Paris Agreement and with country policy.
How do NAMAs and NDCs relate to carbon projects?
They set the national frame. A country’s NDC defines its emission targets. Article 6 of the Paris Agreement governs how countries cooperate through carbon markets to meet them. Individual carbon projects operate inside that frame, so policy work at the national level and project work on the ground are two ends of the same system.
Who needs NAMA and NDC advisory?
Governments, institutions and programmes responsible for national climate action, plus organisations working on initiatives that have to align with a country’s climate commitments. The aim is to make sure mitigation and adaptation actions are technically sound and consistent with the Paris Agreement and national priorities.
Talk to a KMS climate consultant
Working on a NAMA, an NDC commitment or a national climate programme that needs technical assessment? Tell us what you are assessing and we will scope it.
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