ETC/ACM Report 9/2016: Contribution of the Information Reported under the MMR to the Evaluation of National PaMs

Policy evaluation is an important part of the policy cycle. In addition to assessing how effective or efficient adopted policies or measures have been, it also helps improving the definition of future policies and measures. Evaluation of policies and measures draws upon evidence from different sources and methodologies. Databases on policies and measures represent an important knowledge to support these evaluations by:

• providing an overview of actions taken by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in different sectors;
• showing if some policies and measures have been particularly successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
• providing detailed information on each policy or measure and directing to other resources and references for further details, to support policy evaluation.

In this context, the database on climate mitigation policies and measures maintained and regularly updated by the EEA, based on information reported by European Union Member States under EU reporting regulation (the EU ‘Monitoring Mechanism Regulation’) provides an extensive knowledge base able to contribute to the evaluation of national climate mitigation policies in the EU. This source of information can be usefully complemented by additional resources. Furthermore, room for improvement exists in the current reporting system, order to enhance and better support policy evaluation in the EU. Read more here...