Nationally Determined Contributions

Background

Coastal ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrass meadows, and saltwater marshes, provide essential ecosystem services such as coastal protection, biodiversity support, and livelihoods through fisheries, tourism, and other blue economy activities. These ecosystems also play a critical role in climate action by sequestering and storing large amounts of "blue carbon," making them vital for both climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Globally, coastal habitats cover less than 2% of the total ocean areas, but account for approximately half of the total carbon sequestered in ocean sediments. The Caribbean alone holds 18% of the world’s seagrass beds and 12% of its mangrove forests, making it a key region for blue carbon conservation. However, these valuable ecosystems continue to be degraded at alarming rates, releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere and contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing their importance, an increasing number of countries are integrating blue carbon ecosystems into their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

With the upcoming 2025 update of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) “NDC 3.0s”, there is a major opportunity to strengthen climate action by incorporating ocean and coastal conservation into national strategies. Many Caribbean nations, given their high vulnerability to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and extreme weather events, have a strong incentive to enhance the protection and sustainable management of their marine and coastal natural capital. By doing so, they can secure long-term ecosystem services, improve resilience, and unlock new sustainable financing opportunities, and "facilitate sustainable financing opportunities that support long-term conservation and restoration efforts."

Expanding the integration of blue carbon ecosystems and broader marine and coastal natural capital into NDCs will therefore be essential—not only to enhance conservation efforts and support the development of sustainable blue economies but also to reinforce climate adaptation and mitigation actions across the region.

PROCARIBE+ Intervention:

The PROCARIBE+ Project aims to expand the integration of coastal and marine natural capital—particularly blue carbon—into the 2025 NDC updates in the countries of the wider Caribbean Region, and in particular, in Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica and Panama. To achieve this, PROCARIBE+ will support The Pew Charitable Trusts in:

a) Facilitating the integration of coastal and marine natural capital/blue carbon, into the 2025 NDC updates of Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica and Panama.

b) Promoting regional knowledge-sharing by disseminating best practices from NDCs that effectively incorporate marine and coastal natural capital. This will be done through selected platforms and targeted forums to encourage scaling and replication.

c) Strengthening linkages between NDCs, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and/or Blue Economy (BE) development efforts in at least one country.

Key Activities:

Building on its extensive experience in supporting countries in the development of NDCs that integrate blue carbon and natural capital, as well as its expertise in regional knowledge-sharing to strengthen capacity, The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Advancing Coastal Wetlands Conservation project  will carry out the following key activities:

• Organization of regional workshop(s), to:

a) Showcase regional and global best practices and success stories
b) Facilitate discussions, knowledge exchange, and strategic planning to promote widespread upscaling of blue carbon integration in the 2025 (and future) NDCs. 

• Ongoing follow-up and support for workshop participants to integrate blue carbon ecosystems into national climate commitments
• Advocacy for the expanded integration of marine and coastal natural capital and blue carbon in the 2025 NDCs of Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica and Panama, as well as additional nations across the wider Caribbean as appropriate. This effort will include showcasing a “Best Practice” NDC with a strong marine component, to be regionally disseminated through the Ocean Coordination Mechanism (OCM) and other partnerships, encouraging broader adoption and replication.

Anticipated Benefits of updating Nationally Determined Contributions with blue components

Integrating marine and coastal ecosystems into the 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) presents a crucial opportunity to unlock climate, environmental, and socio-economic benefits. The 2025 NDC updates will offer a renewed opportunity for Caribbean countries to increase ambitions by enhancing the role of nature, including blue carbon, in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Incorporating blue components into NDCs can also facilitate sustainable financing opportunities and other nature-based investment mechanisms that support long-term conservation and restoration efforts.

The efforts supported through PROCARIBE+ in relation to NDCs will also promote regional collaboration, knowledge exchange, and capacity-building, enabling Caribbean nations and other coastal states to scale up nature-based solutions for climate action, ocean conservation, and the growth of a sustainable blue economy.