Zeitschrift für Evaluation: Issue 1/2024, 23. Volume Evaluation of funded climate action managers

Since 2008, more than 800 climate action managers (CAM) have been funded through the funding program of the Local Authorities Funding Guideline (LAG); the positions are often anchored in the administration after the maximum five-year funding period has expired. One of the CAM’s main tasks is to implement climate action measures. To this end, they often apply for further funding. However, measuring the impact of their work is a challenge. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the CAM’s work on the utilisation of funding and to quantify the greenhouse gas reductions achieved as a result. The analysis was carried out as a group comparison and as a before-and-after comparison: The utilisation of subsidies in municipalities with CAM is compared with that in municipalities without CAM; and the utilisation of subsidies before the start of CAM is compared with that after the start of CAM. It was shown that municipalities with CAM raise more funding for climate protection, implement more and larger projects and achieve significantly more GHG reductions.

Keywords
Impact analysis, climate action management, comparison group analysis, before and after comparison, municipal climate action