Tipping towards evaluation’s transformational potential (original) (raw)
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Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development: Introduction
This chapter considers evaluation as essential for learning and for reflecting on whether actions to address the complex challenges pertaining to climate change are on track to producing the desired outcomes. The Paris Agreement of 2015 was an important milestone on the road towards a zero-carbon, resilient, prosperous and fair future. However, while the world has agreed on the need to tackle climate change for sustainable development, it is critical to provide evidence-based analysis of past experiences and ongoing innovations to shed light on how we might enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of actions at various levels. Thorough and credible evaluations help us identify what works, for whom, when and where and under what circumstances in order to mitigate climate change, achieve win-win situations for the society, the economy and the environment, reduce risk and increase resilience in the face of changing climate conditions. This chapter serves as an introduction to the book on Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development that sets the scene on the current state of climate change evaluation and brings together experiences on evaluating climate change policy, mitigation and adaptation. Climate change has emerged as one of the preeminent challenges facing humankind in the twenty first century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states
Chapter for volume on evaluation and the SDGs
Every line of evidence leads us to conclude that the threats to sustainability of the planet and the life it supports are very real, large, multi-faceted and imminent. And yet globally we are falling well short on milestones such as the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and 2050 carbon reduction goals. We have pushed natural systems beyond their capacity to adapt and continue to provide the services on which we depend. We are at the endgame on this planet . With some important exceptions, evaluation globally has not recognised the overwhelming evidence that sustainability is a matter worthy of our attention. Sustainability is a materially different matter than those that evaluators are accustomed to addressing because there is a hard stop if we fall short; absent significant improvements in our performance that hard stop is a clear pathway to extinction. Meaning that evaluation at the endgame is different from business as usual evaluation. This chapter is concerned about the character of evaluation that will enable the field to make useful contributions at the endgame. The most fundamental change is to evaluations’ almost monastic focus on the human system, to systematic consideration of all interventions (projects, programs, strategies, policies) in their nexus location where both human and natural systems are present, have influence, provide value and are affected.
The future of global environmental assessments: Making a case for fundamental change
The Anthropocene Review, 2020
Since the late 1970s, over 140 global environmental assessments (GEAs) have been completed. But are they any longer fit for purpose? Some believe not. Compelling arguments have been advanced for a new assessment paradigm, one more focussed on problem-solving than problem-identification. If translated into new assessment practices, this envisaged paradigm could prevail for the next several decades, just as the current one has since the late 1970s. In this paper, it is contended that the arguments for GEAs 2.0 are, in fact, insufficiently bold. Solutions-orientated assessments, often associated with a ‘policy turn’ by their advocates, are undoubtedly necessary. But without a ‘politics turn’ they will be profoundly insufficient: policy options would be detached from the diverse socio-economic explanations and ‘deep hermeneutics’ of value that ultimately give them meaning, especially given the very high stakes now attached to managing human impacts on a fast-changing planet. Here we make the case for GEAs 3.0, where two paradigmatic steps forward are taken at once rather than just one. The second step involves the introduction of political reasoning and structured normative debate about existential alternatives, a pre-requisite to strategic decision-making and its operational expression. Possible objections to this second step are addressed and rebutted. Even so, the case for politically-overt GEAs faces formidable difficulties of implementation. However, we consider these challenges less a sign of our undue idealism and more an indication of the urgent need to mitigate, if not overcome them. In a world of ‘wicked problems’ we need ‘wicked assessments’ adequate to them, preparatory to so-called ‘clumsy solutions’. This paper is intended to inspire more far-reaching debate about the future of GEAs and, by implication, about the roles social science and the humanities might usefully play in addressing global environmental change.
Building Climate Equity: Creating a New Approach from the Ground Up
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The report draws on 30 real-world examples from developing and developed countries that demonstrate how this "capabilities approach" can achieve ambitious low-carbon and adaptation goals while simultaneously enhancing access to decent livelihoods, healthy food, quality housing, physical safety and other capabilities for individuals, communities and nations.The report's emphasis on capabilities can also help advance discussions in the UN climate negotiations about the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.