What should evaluation learn from COP 26? Views of evaluation practitioners
Open accessAbstract
Leading evaluation practitioners were asked about lessons from the recent 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) for evaluation practice. Contributors emphasize the importance of evaluating equity between rich and poor countries and other forms of climate injustice. The role of the evaluation is questioned: what can evaluation be expected to do on its own and what requires collaboration across disciplines, professions and civil society – and across generations? Contributors discuss the implications of the post-Glasgow climate ‘pact’ for the continued relevance of evaluation. Should evaluators advocate for the marginalized and become activists on behalf of sustainability and climate justice – as well as advocates of evidence? Accountability-driven and evidence-based evaluation is needed to assess the effectiveness of investments in adaptation and mitigation. Causal pathways in different settings and ‘theories of no-change’ are needed to understand gaps between stakeholder promises and delivery. Evaluators should measure unintended consequences and what is often left unmeasured, and be sensitive to failure and unanticipated effects of funded actions. Evaluation timescales and units of analysis beyond particular programmes are needed to evaluate the complexities of climate change, sustainability and to take account of natural systems. The implications for evaluation commissioning and funding are discussed as well as the role of evaluation in programme-design and implementation.
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Each nation party agreed to provide funding to achieve these goals.
“At the same time, each nation party agreed to provide funding to achieve these goals (van den Berg et al. 2022).”
From Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review (2022) · cites this paper as van den Berg et al. 2022
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Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review
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- Authors
- van den Berg, R., Bours, D., Brousselle, A., Čekan, J., Chaplowe, S., Chelimsky, E., Davies, I., Felcis, W., Leiter, T., Menezes, D., Picciotto, R., Rogers, P., Rowe, A., & Uitto, J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Evaluation
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-35
- ISSN
- 1356-3890 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7153
- OpenAlex
- W4207005346
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 1.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Evaluation (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
- Keywords
- COP26, climate justice, evidence-based assessment, accountability, adaptation and mitigation, unintended consequences, causal pathways, evaluation funding, program design, sustainability
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