Key messages 

• The Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030 include cross-cutting and ambitious goals, as defined in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Countries are more likely to meet these goals if they enhance policy coherence between the two agendas.
• An initial analysis identifies the synergies and conflicts between NDC goals and SDGs in six countries – Germany, Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden and the Philippines – and offers insights on the key barriers and governance challenges to policy coherence.
• The Agenda 2030 goal to reduce inequality, or SDG 10, conflicts with other goals in all six countries, appearing when governments plan for just energy transitions away from fossil fuels, promote economic growth for poverty alleviation, or enact fuel taxes that open up an urban-rural divide.
• Institutional measures, such as reducing government fragmentation, can increase policy coherence. But policymakers also must look to the underlying political factors that are at the root of policy incoherence, such as the values, norms and vested interests unique to each country