In this background report, we explain how PBL & VU developed the evaluation framework for the Reflexive Evaluation of Dutch climate policy. Through this report, PBL & VU aim to safeguard and enhance the scientific quality of the evaluation framework and resulting academic publications.
The central question of the report is: How to conceptualize the transformative capacity of a policy arrangement and, accordingly, develop an appropriate evaluation framework for evaluating Dutch climate policy in a reflexive way?
Transformative capacity refers to the capacity of policy actors, and the institutional context in which these actors operate, to instigate and/or redirect transformation towards a climate-neutral Netherlands by 2050. Transformative capacity builds upon four distinct capacities: orchestrating capacity, adapting capacity, system-innovating capacity and legitimating capacity.
These four capacities are closely interrelated and influence each other. Transformative capacity implies that all four capacities are present in a policy arrangement. Applying the evaluation framework to the PBL & VU Reflexive Evaluation supports policy actors in identifying and transforming counteracting institutional conditions on the path to a climate-neutral Netherlands by 2050.
