CAP Evaluation Insights: climate change

This edition of CAP Evaluation Insights presents a review of the fifty-five Member State commissioned evaluations in the CAP evaluation database related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It gathers the available empirical research on the topic, grouping findings with a similar focus, and drawing first conclusions on the trends observed. It also looks at how these evaluations were conducted based on a sample of evaluations that have undergone in-depth appraisals by experts in the field.

Over the last two programming periods, the climate transition, both improving farmers’ resilience and adaptation to climate change and reducing agriculture’s impact on climate, has become a key priority of the CAP and other strategic EU policies, such as the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy, the EU Biodiversity strategy for 2030, the EU Climate Risk Assessment, and the European Climate Law.

In the first part of the publication, an overview is provided regarding the frequency with which evaluations related to climate change have been undertaken in individual Member States, as well as an explanation of the type of evaluations done. The second chapter provides examples of the findings from these evaluations, broken down by climate change mitigation, adaptation, and renewable energy, together with a brief analysis. Finally, the third chapter looks at some of the challenges commonly confronted while undertaking evaluations on the topic, including suggestions for how these can be overcome to inspire future evaluators. Thus, the publication provides recommendations for Member States and evaluators related to the methodology for evaluating CAP impacts in relation to climate change.

Most of the evaluations available in the CAP evaluation database focus on climate change mitigation, including renewable energy. The authors stress that one of the reason why evaluations of climate change adaptation lag behind evaluations of mitigation is the lack of a clear monitoring framework and, consequently, coherent evaluation data.

The reviewed evaluations are invaluable decision-making tools because they illuminate the process, shed light on impacts, and offer precious policy design and implementation recommendations.