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IÉSEG is pleased to announce that it is one of 11 European research institutions participating in a major new interdisciplinary project that aims to provide actionable recommendations on the design of climate policy measures for 2030 and beyond.

Overall, policies to transform the European economy to meet the climate targets of the Paris agreement need to be cost-effective, fair, and politically and socially feasible. However, many climate policies face a tension between ambition and effectiveness on the one hand and social and political feasibility on the other. Climate policies can face low acceptance among the general public and business communities, partly due to the lack of scientific evidence on the socio-economic effectiveness and broader performance of climate policies. There is therefore a fundamental challenge for policy design which requires robust scientific methods to assess policy portfolios and also the “sequencing” of policies. 

A new three-year project entitled “ClimAte Policy AcceptaBiLity Economic framework (or CAPABLE), funded by the Horizon Europe program, seeks to address this challenge.

New methods for decision-making

Firstly, the CAPABLE project – involving a team of 40 researchers from different disciplines – aims to develop new methods for socio-economic decision-making.

These methods will look to consider different dimensions of welfare (which have often been neglected in traditional models), including deep uncertainty handling, and the diversity of actors who are impacted by climate policy.

Public perceptions of climate policy

The researchers will also strive to provide policymakers with detailed scientific information on the public perceptions of climate policies.

Loïc BERGER, a researcher at CNRS and the director of the IÉSEG research center on risk and uncertainty (iRisk) explains: “A number of previous proposals for climate policy have been derailed due to public opposition. It is important for policymakers to have better information about the drivers behind such opposition and how these can be incorporated into political decision-making in the future.”

Summarizing the rich scientific literature on climate policy

The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance and effectiveness of evidence-informed policies. “The transition towards a climate-neutral Europe needs to be equally supported by evidence that is rigorous, transparent, timely, and fit-for-purpose”, the team notes. It plans to synthesize a wealth of empirical research on the success of environmental policies, in order to provide valuable information for the design of new policies.

Moreover, the team also plans to re-evaluate this knowledge for the specificity of the EU Green Deal.

Analyzing the role of policymakers at different levels – citizens, local, national, international..

The research team notes that the role of policymakers has been often overlooked in previous research. It plans, therefore, to use qualitative and quantitative approaches to study the way policymakers perceive, understand, and use scientific evidence and what this implies for policy performance and acceptance.

They will also investigate how different actors involved in and affected by climate policies (e.g., the general public, policymakers, businesses) perceive each other, and each other’s roles and responsibilities in climate policies and various decision-making processes, and how such perceptions influence the acceptance and effective implementation of climate policies.

Loïc BERGER adds: “Another important element will be the comparison and analysis of the role of citizens and of different types of engagement including climate assemblies. This will provide important insights for example, in terms of existing barriers to engaging citizens.”

Development of an online policy evaluation tool for policymakers

Finally, the team plans to use the findings and recommendations from the project to develop an “online policy evaluation tool”. “This will be based on a systematic analysis of the academic/scientific literature on the evaluation of climate and environmental policies, together with statistical data on public acceptance and other measures based on our data collected,” they note.

The tool will serve as an instrument to promote the transparency, usability, flexibility, and public acceptance of climate policies and provide a one-stop-shop for policymakers on these issues. Together with other outreach initiatives, it will be used to disseminate research results and to facilitate an active engagement and a structured dialogue with policymakers at the EU and national levels, civil society, investors, and business stakeholders.

More information on the CAPABLE project is available here.

CAPABLE: ClimAte Policy AcceptaBiLity Economic framework is a research project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement n° 101056891.