Background

Long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) are critical tools for translating the goals of the Paris Agreement into national long-term climate and development pathways. In line with Article 4 of the Paris Agreement, Parties are encouraged to formulate and communicate LT-LEDS that reflect national circumstances and capabilities while supporting the transition towards climate-resilient and low-emission economies.

Beyond setting long-term emissions reduction objectives, LT-LEDS help countries align near-term climate action with broader development priorities, strengthen institutional coordination, and guide sectoral transformation pathways. They also provide important signals to investors and financial actors by linking current policy decisions with long-term national objectives.

At the global level, 80 countries have submitted LT-LEDS to the UN Climate Change secretariat. Decision 1/CMA.7 commends these efforts and encourages Parties that have not yet done so to communicate their strategies as soon as possible, while also highlighting the importance of aligning nationally determined contributions (NDCs) with LT-LEDS.

In the Caribbean, Belize and Jamaica are currently the only countries that have submitted LT-LEDS, while several others are at different stages of development. Many small island developing States (SIDS) continue to face challenges related to technical capacity, institutional coordination, and sustained support for the preparation and implementation of long-term climate strategies. Both Belize and Jamaica reflected these same constraints during the process of developing their LT-LEDs, including data gaps, modelling limitations, financing needs, and balancing development priorities with mitigation ambitions, underscoring the need for sustained support and strengthened national systems. In this context, peer exchange and regional collaboration play an important role in advancing shared learning and supporting countries in strengthening long-term climate planning.

To support this process, the UN Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre for the Caribbean (RCC Caribbean), together with the NDC Partnership, UNDP, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), and the 2050 Pathways Platform, is organizing this regional webinar to facilitate knowledge exchange on LT-LEDS development experiences in the Caribbean.

Objectives

The webinar aims to provide a platform for Caribbean countries to exchange experiences, lessons learned and practical insights related to the development and implementation of LT-LEDS.

Specific objectives include:

• Enhancing understanding of the approaches, processes, best practices and challenges involved in preparing LT-LEDS.
• Sharing country experiences related to the implementation of LT-LEDS and their alignment with short-term climate policies, including NDCs.
• Encouraging countries currently developing, or interested in developing, LT-LEDS to engage with peer countries and strengthen regional collaboration on long-term climate planning.

Key takeaways

The peer exchange discussions highlighted several important lessons from the countries. While each process reflected its unique national circumstances and priorities, several common themes emerged. The following points summarize the main takeaways from the webinar discussions:

• LT-LEDS as Integrated Development Frameworks: Belize and Jamaica emphasized that LT-LEDS are not solely climate mitigation strategies, but long-term frameworks for sustainable economic transformation, resilience-building, and investment planning.
• Strong alignment with National Climate Policies: integrating LT-LEDS with NDCs, climate policies, and sectoral strategies helps ensure policy coherence and creates clear pathways from short-term climate action to long-term net-zero and resilience goals.
• Inclusive and Whole-of-Society Approaches: Broad stakeholder engagement was identified as essential to the LT-LEDS process, with government agencies, private sector, academia, civil society, youth, indigenous groups, and local communities contributing to stronger ownership, coordination, and implementation.
• Political Buy-In, and Partnerships: Political buy-in, institutional ownership, and support from development partners were also highlighted as key enablers of successful LT-LEDS development.
• Focus on Implementation and Continuous Improvement: Presenters stressed that LT-LEDS should evolve beyond standalone policy documents into practical implementation frameworks supported by investment planning, cost-benefit analyses, robust data systems, monitoring mechanisms, and periodic reviews to adapt to changing national circumstances and priorities.

Audience

The webinar is targeted at government officials, technical experts and other relevant stakeholders involved in climate policy development, long-term climate planning and implementation of climate action in the Caribbean region.