Gender-responsive budgeting in the new NDCs: who is including it, and why?

The third round of NDCs were due to be released in the lead up to COP30 in November 2025, with parties to the Paris Agreement set to detail commitments to more ambitious emissions reductions. The content of past NDCs have differed greatly depending on which country is submitting the document, especially in how well gender is integrated across actions for NDC implementation. Previous studies show that very few countries incorporate gender-responsive budgeting and access to climate finance into activities listed in NDCs. This thesis endeavours to find out how and why different types of countries incorporate gender-responsive budgeting in NDCs. It finds that countries more heavily dependent on receiving climate finance are more likely to meaningfully incorporate gender-responsive budgeting across actions and incorporate gender considerations more comprehensively in the NDCs. Those responsible for climate finance provision lack almost any evidence of gender-responsive budgeting and incorporate gender in less meaningful ways. The thesis explores the diverging purposes of NDCs between countries, to understand what these differences mean for the implementation gender-responsive climate measures.