Assessing the performance of policy instruments to inform climate change mitigation action

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:Enhanced knowledge of the effectiveness of policy instruments on EU and Member State level to inform mitigation action and policy improvements, ensuring a fair transition and social acceptability;Methodologies are developed and improved for ex-ante assessment and ex-post evaluation of greenhouse gas emission reductions from climate policies and measures;Strengthened collaboration and established networks between researchers, policy experts and government officials involved in designing and evaluating climate policies on EU and national level. Scope:As the EU and its Member States intensify efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, understanding the effectiveness and acceptability of policy instruments becomes crucial. The implementation of the European Green Deal and climate legislation under the recent “Fit-for-55" package has further emphasised the need to better identify and quantify the impact of climate policies and measures both on EU and national level. Many policies are also subject to fast-changing political dynamics. Ex-post evaluation can help explain whether emission reductions occurred and explain why, while also identifying other benefits or trade-offs of climate mitigation.By 2023, the EU had achieved a 37% reduction in its GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels[1]. However, even after almost two decades of EU climate policies, there is still limited understanding of the effectiveness of mitigation policies. The increasing complexity of the policy mix makes it difficult to clearly link individual policies or measures to specific emission reductions and other benefits in different sectors. The interaction with other thematic policies such as those on biodiversity, agriculture and trade is therefore also important.This topic is expected to assess the performance of EU policies and measures for reducing