Methodologies for the evaluation of local climate change mitigation actions: A review

Local actions are currently seen as of major importance for the achievement of climate change mitigation overall targets. As they become more and more patent, it is essential to know more about the extent of their influence. How much are local actions actually contributing to climate change mitigation? What is the effectiveness, relevance and efficiency of these actions, and what are their effects in terms of energy savings and GHG emissions reduction? The main objective of this work is to review the existing work on the evaluation of climate and energy policies considering the difficulties that come along with the assessment of the effects of local actions. In order to do so, an analytical framework composed by the following features was developed: moment of the evaluation; object; geographical scope; causal links consideration; and merit assessment. Despite the existence of several studies that may contribute to the assessment of local actions, the reviewed approaches do not fully assess the contribution of local actions towards climate change mitigation – either by not decoupling its effects from other ongoing or past policies or by not providing their merit assessment. Nevertheless, the analysis of existing approaches was important to acknowledge the implications of different options, providing some guidelines for the development of an improved evaluation methodology. The review has proven the need for an ex-post approach that focus on the actual effects of local actions (considering potential interactions with other policies and the local context) as well as the importance of a merit assessment based on comprehensive benchmarks.