find out what all these abbreviations & acronyms mean

The Paris Agreement requires countries to produce several reports. The UNFCCC then brings that information together in global overviews. Find the details about individual reports by clicking on the buttons below. See the report lists on this page.

Country reports
Under the Paris Agreement, reports are required from countries to cover plans for the future, identifying their targets for GHG emissions and adaptation to climate change. Also, countries must report on recent GHG emissions and climate finance.

		outlines each country's	submitted by	when	latest report/date
NDC	Nationally Determined Contributions	climate plan	all countries	every 5 years		link
NAP	National Adaptation Plan	medium/ long-term needs for adapting to climate change and a strategy to achieve this	developing countries	optional		link
LTS	Long Term Strategy	national plan to lower  GHG emissions	all countries encouraged to draw up an LTS and submit to UN	optional		link
BR	Biennial Report	progress towards Paris Agreement goals	Annex I (developed) countries	every 2 years	BR4 was due in 2020	link
BUR	Biennial Update Report	GHGs, mitigation action, needs and support received	Non-Annex I (developing) countries	every 2 years for most	no fixed dates	link
NC	National Communication	national circumstances, GHGs, current strategies and gaps in capabilities	all countries, although with different reporting requirements	every 4 years	NC7   2018	link & link
	National Inventory Submission	GHG emissions and removals – CRFs & NIRs	Annex I	yearly		link

UN Reports
Based on the information provided by countries, the UN puts together global reviews of data and also presents this information in a number of data portals.

		aim	latest
	NDC Synthesis Report	Brings together information from latest NDCs, assuming that they will be implemented. Gives forecasts of GHG levels, collates information on adaptation and identifies opportunities for more action. Next full report is expected Sept 2021 (the initial report published Feb 2021 indicated that, to keep warming to 1.5°C, efforts to reduce emissions need to nearly double).	2016
	Climate action and support trends	This is an interim report on the pledges and progress in NDCs	2019
	Emissions Gap Report	Assessment of the gap between GHG emissions if countries  implement  their  climate  mitigation  pledges in NDCs  and  the GHG levels needed to achieve temperature goals of the Paris Agreement	2020
	Synthesis of Biennial Reports	Brings together information from Biennial Reports (developed countries). Reports on GHG emissions, mitigation policies and actions and provision of financial, technological and capacity-building support to developing countries. Produced every two years, starting in 2014. Before then, there were syntheses of NC reports.	2018
BA	Biennial Assessment (of climate finance)	Assessment of climate finance flows, drawing on all available information. Prepared every 2 years by the SCF. Next report expected mid-2021.	2018
	Aggregate information on GHGs	Annual summary of GHG sources and removals of Annex I countries. Data is from the CRFs and NIRs.	2020
IAR	International Assessment &  Review	Technical review – an assessment of whether a developed country’s BR and NC meet the UNFCC reporting requirements. Multilateral Assessment – developed countries are assessed on their progress in meeting their 2020 targets.	2020   &   2021