Preface
Climate change is one of the preeminent challenges facing the world today. The
consequences of climate change manifest themselves in multiple ways, including
increased variability and intensity of extreme weather events and sea level rise. We
are already seeing the impacts of climate change, and the first ones to feel them tend
to be poor people and poor countries that are most vulnerable and have the least
capacities to cope with them. The search for solutions to mitigate climate change
and to adapt to its consequences is urgent. Rigorous evaluation of policies, programs, and projects can help the international community to identify technical
solutions, economic strategies, and social innovations that improve our ability to
deal with climate change. This is the focus of the present book.
The book has its genesis in the Climate-Eval Community of Practice hosted by
the Independent Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility. Its overarching goal is to establish standards and norms, support capacity development, and
share good practices in evaluations of climate change and development. In
November 2014, Climate-Eval with its partners organized the Second International
Conference on Evaluating Climate Change and Development in Washington,
D.C. The aim of this event was to promote an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas
and methods to evaluate climate change and sustainable development. This 3-day
event brought together some 300 leading experts and policymakers in the field and
included sessions on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and policy, as well as
special sessions such as panel discussions and roundtables. Topics discussed ranged
from theory of change approaches to evaluation and institutional capacity; to
disaster risk reduction, resilience, and tracking adaptation; to monitoring and
evaluation of ecosystem-based and natural resource management interventions
and climate change funds.
Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development builds upon a
selection of the most relevant and practical papers and presentations given at the
2014 conference. Following the conference, the editors and the authors worked
closely together to develop the presentations into a coherent set of articles organized around the three main themes of climate change evaluation: policy,
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Climate change is one of the preeminent challenges facing the world today. The
consequences of climate change manifest themselves in multiple ways, including
increased variability and intensity of extreme weather events and sea level rise. We
are already seeing the impacts of climate change, and the first ones to feel them tend
to be poor people and poor countries that are most vulnerable and have the least
capacities to cope with them. The search for solutions to mitigate climate change
and to adapt to its consequences is urgent. Rigorous evaluation of policies, programs, and projects can help the international community to identify technical
solutions, economic strategies, and social innovations that improve our ability to
deal with climate change. This is the focus of the present book.
The book has its genesis in the Climate-Eval Community of Practice hosted by
the Independent Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility. Its overarching goal is to establish standards and norms, support capacity development, and
share good practices in evaluations of climate change and development. In
November 2014, Climate-Eval with its partners organized the Second International
Conference on Evaluating Climate Change and Development in Washington,
D.C. The aim of this event was to promote an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas
and methods to evaluate climate change and sustainable development. This 3-day
event brought together some 300 leading experts and policymakers in the field and
included sessions on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and policy, as well as
special sessions such as panel discussions and roundtables. Topics discussed ranged
from theory of change approaches to evaluation and institutional capacity; to
disaster risk reduction, resilience, and tracking adaptation; to monitoring and
evaluation of ecosystem-based and natural resource management interventions
and climate change funds.
Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development builds upon a
selection of the most relevant and practical papers and presentations given at the
2014 conference. Following the conference, the editors and the authors worked
closely together to develop the presentations into a coherent set of articles organized around the three main themes of climate change evaluation: policy,
xi