BeKlimBu

In recent years, several federal states have set themselves specific climate protection targets, in some cases in the form of climate protection laws, which stipulate a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and, in many cases, climate neutrality by 2045 – or even earlier. However, these climate protection targets can only be successfully implemented if the respective federal states continuously review their progress and, in particular, the effectiveness of their own climate protection measures. Such regular reviews make it possible to adapt existing measures as necessary and to enact new measures in good time to ensure that the targets are achieved. 

However, experience from recent years shows that the impact of climate protection measures, particularly at the federal state level, is difficult to quantify robustly. One reason for this is the 'sandwich position' of the federal states, which leads to complex and sometimes unclear interactions between their own climate policy measures and those of the federal government and the EU on the one hand, and local authorities on the other. The impact of most climate policy measures cannot therefore be clearly attributed to the different levels.

This raises the question of how the implementation of the countries' climate protection targets can nevertheless be supported, the certainty of achieving the targets increased and, at the same time, the effort required for this limited. The possibilities and limitations of collecting climate protection measures at the federal state level in a targeted manner, recording them centrally and evaluating them with external expertise were examined in more detail in the BeKlimBu research project. Similar processes in other federal states and at the federal level were also taken into account. The project hypothesised that structuring state climate protection policy into fields of action and pathways is a useful means of presenting climate policy measures at the state level in a structured manner and making them assessable. 

The research project analysed and answered the following two main research questions: 

• How can the assessment of state climate protection measures, for example by an independent council of experts, be made possible on the basis of pathways developed by state governments for key areas of climate protection action?
• What form could a system for presenting climate protection measures take that would provide a council of experts with sufficient, comprehensible and clear information and enable it to carry out an independent and expert assessment? 

In the research project, the project team used North Rhine-Westphalia as an example to develop a set of consistent fields of action at state level and describe their content, levers of action, boundaries and interactions with other fields of action. In addition, paths were developed for two fields of action as examples and a design for a survey questionnaire was conceived, which is intended to make individual measures – in conjunction with the existing paths – comprehensible and assessable for an external council of experts.

The research report summarises the key findings on the research questions and draws conclusions for the design of a system for recording and evaluating climate protection policy at the state level.