LT-LEDS

LT-LEDS stands for Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategy. It is a voluntary planning document that Parties to the Paris Agreement are invited to submit to the UNFCCC secretariat under Article 4, paragraph 19 of the Agreement, which calls on all Parties to "strive to formulate and communicate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies."

Unlike Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which set near-term targets and are updated every five years, LT-LEDS look out to 2050 or beyond. They are intended to align short-term policy with the Paris Agreement's long-term temperature goal of holding warming well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C, and with the goal in Article 4.1 of reaching a balance between anthropogenic emissions and removals in the second half of the century.

LT-LEDS typically cover:

• A long-term emissions trajectory, often expressed as a net-zero target year.
• Sectoral pathways for power, transport, industry, buildings, agriculture, and land use.
• Assumptions on technology deployment (renewables, hydrogen, CCS, electric vehicles).
• Links to adaptation, just transition, and sustainable development priorities.
• The role of carbon sinks (LULUCF) and any reliance on international cooperation under Article 6.

Submitted strategies are published on the UNFCCC's dedicated LT-LEDS portal. The Glasgow Climate Pact (decision 1/CMA.3, 2021) urged Parties that had not yet done so to submit long-term strategies towards just transitions to net zero by or around mid-century, and subsequent COP outcomes have repeatedly reiterated this invitation.

Major submitters include the United States, the European Union and its member states, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, China, Republic of Korea, South Africa, and a growing number of developing countries. The quality, ambition, and methodological transparency of LT-LEDS vary significantly, and they are not legally binding instruments — they are strategic signals to investors, domestic regulators, and international partners.