Nationally Determined Contribution Expert Tool (NEXT)
Greenhouse gas accounting tool
Description
Nationally Determined Contribution Expert Tool (NEXT) is a greenhouse gas accounting tool used to support annual environmental impact assessment for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sector (AFOLU). NEXT provides a 30-year series of annual and accumulated estimates of carbon removal and greenhouse gas emission reductions from actions determined by Parties in their climate policies. The tool can help countries to interpret, track, and scale up ambition of their nationally determined contributions (NDC) which could ultimately inform the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement in a harmonised way.
Technology
NEXT provides a detailed temporal series of results and a wide set of indicators, including the social value of carbon. This enables the determination of comprehensive environmental and economic overview of climate actions in achieving mitigation targets. The solution is implemented in Microsoft Excel, which operates through structured worksheets, built-in formulas, and automated logic. Once a country is selected, NEXT automatically loads climate and ecological zones, soil types, crop yields, and livestock categories among others. The end result of data visualisation using the tool is a dashboard with GHG emissions and carbon stock changes. NEXT specifically tracks three major gases: a) CO₂ b) CH₄ and c) N₂O.
Target
The target users of the platform are government national experts and practitioners who assess the mitigation potential of their policies and measures. These actors can use NEXT to plan within their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to achieve carbon neutral economy. Based on the resources available online, the tool has received over 180 downloads as of January 2026.
Business model
NEXT operates as a non-commercial public goods and an open-source platform.
Impact
NEXT aims to provide results that directly respond to the provisions of the Enhanced Transparency Framework and support the NDC developments.
Partners
Agence Française de Développement; Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany; International Fund for Agricultural Development;
Four Betters
Better environment
Better production
