Making the Climate Count : Climate Policy Integration and Coherence in Finland

Tackling climate change in Finland and other industrialised countries requires major changes in production processes and consumption patterns. These changes will not take place unless climate change becomes a crucial factor in general and sector-specific policy-making. In this report climate policy integration in Finland is studied at different levels of policy-making: at the national level, regionally in Kymenlakso and the Metropolitan Area, as well as in the city of Helsinki and the town of Kotka. At the national level climate policy integration is assessed in general governmental policies, such as government programmes, budget proposal and impact assessment guidelines but also in more detail for policies, agencies and practices of transport and innovation policies.Climate change appears increasingly in the more general strategies of Finnish public administration. The latest Government Programme and indeed the 2009 Government Budget Proposal emphasise climate change mitigation and adaptation more than before. However, integration has not yet been fully reflected in the implementation of specific measures. For example, the state budget still lacks concrete climate objectives for most sectors and evaluations of the climate impacts of different budget allocations. Kymenlaakso and the Metropolitan Region as well as the city of Helsinki and the town of Kotka have increased the weighting of climate change in their strategies. In spite of some specific measures, such as increased investments in public transport, much remains to be done at the local level, for example, in energy production and land use planning. In the context of extended climate policy integration, the coherence of and conflicts between climate policy and other policy aims require attention. This requires, for example, increased availability of climate expertise in the public administration. Reducing policy conflicts may mean that other aims, such as unlimited and inexpensive mobility, must be subordinated to climate change mitigation

Environmental Policy Evaluation: Concepts and Practice

Ympäristöpolitiikan arviointi auttaa luomaan parempaa politiikkaa Ympäristöpolitiikka on suurten haasteiden edessä. Toisaalta ohjausta pitäisi keventää, yksinkertaistaa ja tehostaa kilpailukyvyn nimissä, toisaalta uudet ympäristöongelmat edellyttävät uutta ympäristöpolitiikkaa. Jotta haasteisiin pystyttäisiin vastaamaan, pitäisi niin harjoitettua ympäristöpolitiikkaa kuin uusia aloitteitakin pystyä arvioimaan. Väitöskirjasta "Ympäristöpolitiikan arviointi: käsitteitä ja käytäntöjä" saa eväitä siihen, miten suomalaista ja eurooppalaista ympäristöpolitiikkaa voidaan arvioida niin, että voidaan kehittää aidosti parempaa politiikkaa. Politiikan toteutumista on arvioitu jo pitkään, mutta vasta viime vuosina arviointi on levinnyt ympäristöpolitiikkaan. Ympäristön ominaispiirteet asettavat sekä politiikalle että sen arvioinnille haasteita: ympäristöongelmat ovat monimutkaisia ja ristiriitaisia ja sisältävät paljon epävarmuuksia. Syiden ja seurausten hahmottaminen on haasteellista, ja politiikan tulokset näkyvät usein vasta vuosien tai jopa vuosikymmenien päästä. Näkökulma pitäisikin laajentaa ensin pelkistä tavoitelluista vaikutuksista harjoitetun politiikan sivuvaikutuksiin. Toisena lähtökohtana tulisi olla useiden arvokriteerien rinnakkainen käyttö vaikuttavuuden tai kustannustehokkuuden ohella. Kolmanneksi pitäisi tunnistaa eri sidosryhmien oletukset politiikan vaikutusmekanismeista, vertailla niitä keskenään ja analysoida niitä suhteessa empiirisiin aineistoihin. Useiden, niin laadullisten kuin määrällistenkin menetelmien rinnakkainen käyttö antaa enemmän ja varmempia vastauksia kuin vain yhden menetelmän soveltaminen. Väitöskirjan esimerkit Suomen vesiluparajojen arvioinnista osoittavat, miten näitä lähestymistapoja voidaan käytännössä soveltaa. Luparajat ovat vaikuttaneet merkittävästi massa- ja paperiteollisuuden vesipäästöihin. Niillä on ollut myös merkittäviä sivuvaikutuksia esimerkiksi ympäristöosaamiseen. Sellaiset kriteerit kuin ennakoitavuus ja joustavuus tuovat selkeästi esille uusia näkökulmia luparajoista ja yhdessä monta menetelmää kertoo enemmän kuin kukin niistä kertoisi yksinään. Ympäristöpolitiikan arviointi on tärkeää, sillä sen avulla edistetään politiikan ja sen toimenpanon kehittämistä. Lisäksi arviointi on yksi tapa edistää hallinnon vastuuvelvollisuutta. Ympäristöpolitiikan arvioiminen ottamatta huomioon sen erityispiirteitä johtaa todennäköisesti politiikan vaikutusten aliarvioimiseen. Seurauksena voi silloin helposti olla toimivien ohjausjärjestelmien romuttaminen tai kehittäminen väärään suuntaan.The European Union like many countries have started to require that environmental policies should be evaluated. Questions of whether environmental policies ­ present or future ­ are effective or if we are getting the most environment for the money are frequently posed. This thesis is a response to these requests. The main aims of this thesis can be summarised in two questions: Should environmental policies be evaluated? and if so "How could they be evaluated? . These questions are approached by examining concepts, which may be used to evaluate environmental policies. The usefulness of approaches, methods and criteria will be determined through the practice of evaluation and thus the use of the concepts is studied based on experiences from an evaluation of Finnish environmental permits for pulp and paper mills. In this thesis it is argued that the demand for evaluations warrants a response because evaluating environmental policies can provide opportunities for learning and development, and also promote accountability. Side-effect evaluation, multi-criteria evaluation, intervention theories and triangulation have been conceptually discussed and indeed tested in practice and found to provide useful means for the evaluation of environmental policies. The advantages of triangulation in order to evaluate impacts were clearly demonstrated when the impacts of permitting was evaluated. Clear effects of permit limits on the discharges of many but not all pulp and paper mills were found. That some mills got limit values very late and that others had limits that did not change for decades, however, reduced the impacts. A side-effect of the permitting systems was an increase in the education and general know-how in the environmental field. This side-effect has been important both regarding a sustained improved state of the environment and with respect to the ability to gradually expand the scope of environmental policies. Flexibility has implied the ability to differentiate the requirements based on e.g. local conditions and features of the mill concerned. A flexible permit system could be very uncertain, predictability thus becomes an important criterion. Statistical modelling showed that the introduction of phosphorus limits was not random, instead it was largely predictable based on certain characteristics related to the mill. The informal preparatory phase and the often long formal process made sure that the permit content was seldom a surprise. The evaluation showed that the Finnish permit systems were fairly transparent. Openness has improved predictability. The informal phase before an application was made has not been that transparent, which partly reduces the formal transparency. The side-effect evaluation perspective is a particularly useful starting point for the evaluation of environmental policies, emphasising that a key task of an evaluation is to draw a more complete picture of all the effects. In order to make statements on the merit, worth and value of the policy some criteria are also required. Fruitful deliberation is better advanced if several criteria are used instead of just one, e.g. assessing only the effectiveness of a policy. Intervention theories, restructured on the basis of the assumptions and beliefs of different stakeholders, are tools that can be used in order to plan the evaluation in relation to the anticipated effects. Utilising multiple criteria and examining intervention theories requires data and analyses. For these purposes triangulation is emphasised. By utilising several data sources, methods, theories and the complementary perspectives of several evaluators one is more likely to achieve a good assessment of complicated causal relationships as well as to discover unanticipated effects

Suomen ympäristökeskuksen toimintakertomus ja tilinpäätöslaskelmat vuodelta 2012

Julkaisu sisältää kuvauksen Suomen ympäristökeskuksen toiminnasta ja tuloksista vuodelta 2012. Se sisältää johdon katsauksen toimintaan sekä kuvauksen toiminnan vaikuttavuudesta, toiminnallisesta tehokkuudesta sekä tuotoksista ja laadunhallinnasta tehtäväalueittain. Julkaisu sisältää henkilöstöä ja työajan käyttöä sekä kustannuksia ja määrärahojen käyttöä kuvaavia laskelmia. Julkaisussa on myös kuvaus SYKEn sisäisestä valvonnasta sekä toimintaan ja palveluihin kohdistuvista arvioinneista. Julkaisu sisältää myös SYKEn tilinpäätöslaskelmat ja niiden tarkastelun, johto-organisaation sekä kuvauksia vuonna 2012 valmistuneista tutkimuksista ja hankkeista

Transition governance for energy efficiency - insights from a systematic review of Swedish policy evaluation practices

Background The transition towards a more sustainable energy system is urgent for addressing global environmental and social challenges, and will require transformative changes including improved energy efficiency in the built environment. To reach identified efficiency potentials, various policy instruments have been introduced but their effects are often unclear. In this paper, we argue that the outline of transformative policy strategies will require well-designed evaluations. The objective is to present a theory-based evaluation framework that can be used to assess existing evaluations, in order to support transformative policy strategies. The framework is also applied to provide insights from current Swedish evaluation practices. Methods The theory-based evaluation framework presented builds on evaluation theory, policy analysis and transition research and is arranged around methods, value judgements and use of the evaluations. Moreover, key aspects from transition research are included to provide guidance for transformative efforts in the evaluations. The systematic review presented in the paper is qualitative, covering 33 policy evaluations for energy efficiency in buildings in Sweden, commissioned by Swedish governmental authorities over a decade. Results The results of the review reveal a wide range of evaluations undertaken, using a sound methodological evaluation base that builds on a variety of methods for analysis, and application of multi-criteria analyses. Commonly, however, a rather narrow scope was applied and we note a missed opportunity for triangulation of findings. Key aspects for capturing transformative efforts, such as system-, scale- and multi-actor approaches, as well as visioning, experimentation and learning, were considered to varying extents, but could be more explicit and elaborate. Conclusion In all, we find the proposed theory-based evaluation framework useful for assessing and discussing both robustness and transformative efforts of current policy and evaluation practices. The review of the Swedish policy evaluations further indicates sound evaluation practices, and a foundational structure for identifying and analysing transformative efforts. To fully support transformative changes, we suggest a wider system perspective and a more thorough multi-actor approach and actor involvement in the evaluations. We also stress the need to further link evaluation theory with transition research to design evaluations that can support transformative changes in society