The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis

Abstract Background This article presents the main findings from a meta-analysis of how climate change mitigation policy evaluations have been undertaken in the European Union (EU) and six of its Member States: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom. It aims to provi...

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Main Authors: Noriko Fujiwara, Harro van Asselt, Stefan Böβner, Sebastian Voigt, Niki-Artemis Spyridaki, Alexandros Flamos, Emilie Alberola, Keith Williges, Andreas Türk, Michael ten Donkelaar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2019-12-01
Series:Sustainable Earth
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-019-0015-8
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spelling doaj-09b36e18fecc47a6a0e62926f5a026e32020-12-13T12:38:19ZengBMCSustainable Earth2520-87482019-12-012111610.1186/s42055-019-0015-8The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysisNoriko Fujiwara0Harro van Asselt1Stefan Böβner2Sebastian Voigt3Niki-Artemis Spyridaki4Alexandros Flamos5Emilie Alberola6Keith Williges7Andreas Türk8Michael ten Donkelaar9Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)University of Eastern Finland Law SchoolStockholm Environment InstituteCentre for European Economic Research (ZEW)University of Piraeus Research Centre (UPRC)University of Piraeus Research Centre (UPRC)ECOACT FRANCEUniversity of GrazUniversity of GrazRICARDO, Prague Technical Centre, Palác KarlínAbstract Background This article presents the main findings from a meta-analysis of how climate change mitigation policy evaluations have been undertaken in the European Union (EU) and six of its Member States: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom. It aims to provide insights into how policy evaluations are carried out and how those practices might be improved. As a first step, this article reviews the literature on the theory and practice of policy evaluations to guide our methodology and further analysis. Results Our sample of 236 policy evaluations in the EU and six Member States covers the period 2010–2016. Compared with the results of a similar meta-analysis carried out covering the period 1998–2007, formal evaluations commissioned by government bodies have been on the rise in 2010–2016. Most evaluations focus on effectiveness and goal achievement and usually forgo a deeper level of reflexivity and/or public participation in the evaluation process. The analysis also reveals the dominance of the energy sector in the sampled evaluations. The article finds that the low number of any policy evaluations in the agriculture, waste or land-use sectors is an area for further investigation. Conclusions The exercise of identifying, coding and categorising these evaluations for 7 years helps to provide insights into the potential use of ex-post evaluations in support of future EU legislative proposals and accompanying impact assessments. Having a good understanding on how a certain policy performed particularly according to evaluation criteria might form the basis for more ambitious climate change mitigation policies in the future. Our analysis further shows that it is crucial and urgent to allocate sufficient resources to the coverage of relatively under-represented sectors, such as land use, land-use change and forestry, and waste.https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-019-0015-8Climate policyPolicy evaluationMeta-analysisEuropean UnionEU member states
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Noriko Fujiwara
Harro van Asselt
Stefan Böβner
Sebastian Voigt
Niki-Artemis Spyridaki
Alexandros Flamos
Emilie Alberola
Keith Williges
Andreas Türk
Michael ten Donkelaar
spellingShingle Noriko Fujiwara
Harro van Asselt
Stefan Böβner
Sebastian Voigt
Niki-Artemis Spyridaki
Alexandros Flamos
Emilie Alberola
Keith Williges
Andreas Türk
Michael ten Donkelaar
The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
Sustainable Earth
Climate policy
Policy evaluation
Meta-analysis
European Union
EU member states
author_facet Noriko Fujiwara
Harro van Asselt
Stefan Böβner
Sebastian Voigt
Niki-Artemis Spyridaki
Alexandros Flamos
Emilie Alberola
Keith Williges
Andreas Türk
Michael ten Donkelaar
author_sort Noriko Fujiwara
title The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
title_short The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
title_full The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
title_fullStr The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
title_sort practice of climate change policy evaluations in the european union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis
publisher BMC
series Sustainable Earth
issn 2520-8748
publishDate 2019-12-01
description Abstract Background This article presents the main findings from a meta-analysis of how climate change mitigation policy evaluations have been undertaken in the European Union (EU) and six of its Member States: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom. It aims to provide insights into how policy evaluations are carried out and how those practices might be improved. As a first step, this article reviews the literature on the theory and practice of policy evaluations to guide our methodology and further analysis. Results Our sample of 236 policy evaluations in the EU and six Member States covers the period 2010–2016. Compared with the results of a similar meta-analysis carried out covering the period 1998–2007, formal evaluations commissioned by government bodies have been on the rise in 2010–2016. Most evaluations focus on effectiveness and goal achievement and usually forgo a deeper level of reflexivity and/or public participation in the evaluation process. The analysis also reveals the dominance of the energy sector in the sampled evaluations. The article finds that the low number of any policy evaluations in the agriculture, waste or land-use sectors is an area for further investigation. Conclusions The exercise of identifying, coding and categorising these evaluations for 7 years helps to provide insights into the potential use of ex-post evaluations in support of future EU legislative proposals and accompanying impact assessments. Having a good understanding on how a certain policy performed particularly according to evaluation criteria might form the basis for more ambitious climate change mitigation policies in the future. Our analysis further shows that it is crucial and urgent to allocate sufficient resources to the coverage of relatively under-represented sectors, such as land use, land-use change and forestry, and waste.
topic Climate policy
Policy evaluation
Meta-analysis
European Union
EU member states
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-019-0015-8
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