An assessment of the potential for spurring transformational change through Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)

Abstract

Fulfilling the UN Paris Agreement on climate change requires societal change at transformational scales, with associated challenges that are intensified in developing countries. In this context, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) – a key instrument in support of developing countries’ climate actions – are promoted for their high theoretical transformative potential. However, little is known of how NAMAs are related to transformation in practice. This article studies how developing countries intend to use the instrument to implement climate actions and whether these intentions are related to how transformation can be spurred at landscape, regime, and niche levels. 144 developing countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement are examined alongside 17 representative NAMA proposals. Although there is scope to improve consideration of the instrument’s theoretically high transformative potential in actual design, current practices indicate that spurring transformational change is already a high priority of NAMA designers.