The impact of evaluating environment and climate policies

In order to achieve the goal set out in the 7th Environment Action Programme of “living well, within the limits of our planet”, the European Union and its members states have put in place a range of environment and climate policies. These seek to address the challenge of turning Europe into a resource-efficient, green and low-carbon economy. The 2018 Forum will reflect on how environment and climate policies are serving these societal and environmental challenges, focusing on the evaluation of these policies and the impact of the evaluations in the policy cycle.

The 2018 Forum will focus both on the evaluations of the impact of environment and climate policies and on the impact of the evaluations of environment and climate policies.

The following proposed themes reflect the so-called enablers of the 7th Environment Action Programme and will provide the broad framework for the EEEN Forum 2018:

Better information by improving the knowledge base

Developing the necessary knowledge base is one of the key challenges to find out whether policies are effective in serving their purpose. Even more important is the way that developments in the knowledge base are communicated. Which stakeholders are being addressed by evaluation results? What do evaluators communicate and how should they communicate?

More and wiser investment for environment and climate policies

If we want to increase the efficiency of our investments, we need to improve knowledge on the socio-economic impact of environment and climate policies. Do evaluations sufficiently address these socio-economic aspects? As the focus on finance and investments for sustainability intensifies (not least the Sustainable Development Goals), what are the challenges for the evaluation community?

Better implementation of legislation

As environment and climate policies are developed and implemented at many levels – international, European, national, regional, local – there are many different levels at which legislation is being evaluated. What can the European environmental evaluation community learn from others, including international, national, or regional actors? What can be learned from other policy areas? Can we learn from the different methodologies being used and their impact?

Full integration of environmental requirements and considerations into other policies

How do evaluations of environment and climate policies address the challenges of the future, including the fact that many policies are interlinked and that we experience synergies and trade-offs between them? How do evaluations deal with the integration dimension? Does the integration dimension influence the methodologies needed? How do evaluations deal with the need for systemic approaches needed for the transition towards circular economy, bioeconomy, low-carbon economy?

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Luca Jahier, President of the European Economic and Social Committee
  • Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency
  • Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director-General DG Environment
  • Andreas Kopp, Member of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board
  • Patrick ten Brink, Director of EU Policy, European Environmental Bureau
  • Felix Poetschke, Press officer for the German Environment Agency
  • Arnaud Schwartz, member of the European Economic and Social Committee

If you have any questions about the event, please do not hesitate to contact EEEN.

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The impact of evaluating environment and climate policies - Agenda