 | Digital technologies are increasingly recognized as a critical element for the world's climate future. Digital solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI), offer the potential to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across various sectors.
This stocktake examines how, in parallel, countries are leveraging digital technologies to meet climate action targets and how the digital sector is captured in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with 2035 targets. The analysis covers 53 NDCs with 2035 targets, officially submitted between 1 January 2025 and the close of the 80th UN General Assembly on 29 September 2025.
The analysis shows almost 90% of the sample references digital technologies to be implementation levers, most prominently in the form of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) or data platforms, decision-support systems and multi-hazard early-warning systems. Also evident is growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) for enhanced weather forecasts, optimization and land-use monitoring.
Despite these widespread and growing applications for climate action, the vast majority of NDCs only account for digital technologies as part of implementation mechanisms, technology-transfer chapters, or specific digital solutions to achieve sectoral targets. In practice, the digital sector is not regarded as a sector in its own right with separate mitigation and adaptation targets to account for its own impact.
The findings of this analysis of NDCs reflect where national priorities for climate action stand.
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