Overview

The Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through NDCs and NAPs (SCALA) programme supports countries to enhance climate action in land-use and agriculture, together with partners. Using countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and/or National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as entry points, SCALA identifies pathways for implementing climate actions with the potential to trigger transformative systems change. It emphasises private sector engagement as well as gender-responsive and inclusive approaches to planning and implementation that benefit the most vulnerable natural resource-dependent communities.

The 12 core SCALA countries are Argentina, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Nepal, Senegal, Thailand, and Uganda. Additional countries are supported through a technical assistance facility.

Funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), the 20 million euro programme is implemented through a joint effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2021-2025. It builds on lessons learned from the Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) Programme, where UNDP and FAO played a catalytic role in the paradigm shift for NAPs, establishing partnerships between sectors for adaptation planning and budgeting within governments from 2015-2020. 

The SCALA Programme contributes to the UNDP Climate Promise as it enters its second phase (2022-2026) of providing comprehensive support on NDC implementation in 120 countries and FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, while working closely with a range of other partners. In parallel to supporting countries to develop the capacity to own and lead the process to meet targets set out in their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, SCALA activities also contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. 

There is an urgent need for ambition and action to harness the land use and agriculture sectors’ potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels emphasizes that containing global warning within 1.5 degrees is not possible without the substantial contribution of the agriculture sectors. This is confirmed by the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, which gives clear guidance on how science, technology and innovative approaches are recommended to be pursued by countries to address climate change for the land sector. 

Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are the processes by which countries plan for and communicate their mitigation and adaptation goals and strategies to the global community under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The great push for 2020 NDC enhancement under the Paris Agreement is to accelerate implementation and to ramp up ambition at the same time. 

Agriculture is a major priority in 96 percent of all countries’ first cycle of NDCs, under the Paris Agreement. Yet, to date, there is insufficient ambition and implementation of climate actions related to land-use and agriculture, as set out in NDCs and NAPs, to keep global warming below the 1.5 °C threshold and enhance adaptive capacity. The evidence makes clear that achieving climate-related goals in land use and agriculture will require nothing less than the transformation of agri-food systems. This is also closely linked with the effort to achieve inclusive and resilient development under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.