Climate Change Policy Evaluation (BR0108)

Commitment 9: Develop, collaboratively, a transparent mechanism for the evaluation of actions and policies related to climate changes.
Lead government institution Ministry of the Environment - MMA
Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Hugo Mendes
Position - Department Head of Cabinet
Secretariat for Climate and Forest Changes
E-mail hugo.mendes@mma.gov.br
Telephone (61) 2028-2026
Other involved actors Government Ministry of the Environment - MMA
Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication - MCTIC
Federal Court of Accounts - TCU
Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Republic
Civil Society World Resources Institute – WRI/Brasil
Institute for Forest and Agriculture Management and Certification - IMAFLORA
Life Center Institute - ICV
Institute for Weather and Society - ICS
Climate Observatory - OC
Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Reduced transparency over the analysis about actions and policies associated to climate changes as well as insufficiency of opportunities for civic participation.
Main objective Improve the planning and management of the Climate Policy counting with effective civic participation.
Commitment short description The commitment is devoted to the improvement of the management and planning of the Climate Policy by the analysis of policies and actions as well as to the expansion of spaces for civic participation.
OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment Increase the availability of governmental activities
Support civic participation
Increase access to new technologies in order to disclosing and accountability
Commitment relevance Greater transparency over information about plans and policies related to climate
Goal Improve governance model on the climate sector
Situation Initiated in October 2018
Results description Not available
Implemented until July/2020

Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the Commitment Start date: End date: Responsible:
1. Identification and mapping of studies and academicals articles that record impacts on climate change

10/01/2018

11/30/2018 MCTIC*
TCU
WRI
2. Identification and mapping of documents, as well as national and international experiences over reviews about policies and actions related to climate changes

10/01/2018

01/31/2019 WRI*
Chief of Staff Office/PR
TCU
3. Scope definition about policies and target actions of the evaluation
01/01/2019
02/28/2019 MMA
ICS
Chief of Staff Office/PR*
4. Identification and mapping of relevant actors for the evaluation of actions and policies associated to climate changes

02/01/2019

04/30/2019 MMA
ICS
Chief of Staff Office/PR*
5. Execution of a public event to discuss the methodology, scope and indicators

07/01/2019
10/31/2019 ICS*
WRI
MCTIC
Imaflora
6. Definition of indicators and methodology to be applied over the evaluation
05/01/2019
02/29/2020 TCU
MCTIC*
ICV/OC
7. Proposal for a management and responsibility mechanism
03/01/2020
05/31/2020 Chief of Staff Office/PR*
TCU
8. Definition of a disclosure channel for the mechanism as well as the disclosure of its results
06/01/2020
07/31/2020 MMA*
MCTIC
Imaflora

Design Report

9. Open Government and Climate

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Improve the planning and management of the Climate Policy counting with effective civic participation.”

9.1. Identification and mapping of studies and academicals articles that record impacts on climate change

9.2. Identification and mapping of documents, as well as national and international experiences over reviews about policies and actions related to climate changes

9.3. Scope definition about policies and target actions of the evaluation

9.4. Identification and mapping of relevant actors for the evaluation of actions and policies associated to climate changes

9.5. Execution of a public event to discuss the methodology, scope and indicators

9.6. Definition of indicators and methodology to be applied over the evaluation

9.7. Proposal for a management and responsibility mechanism

9.8. Definition of a disclosure channel for the mechanism as well as the disclosure of its results

Start Date: January 2018                                                                           End Date: July 2020

Editorial note: to see the complete text, visit https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/brazil-national-action-plan-2018-2020/.

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to improve the planning and management of climate policies and to promote effective civic participation. Environmental and climate organizations and government agencies were not directly engaged in the first two action plans, but climate change gained interest among stakeholders from 2016 onward. [65] While there were climate initiatives around access to information and transparency, there were no strong, formal mechanisms for civic participation. To address this problem, the commitment will promote structured forms of participation related to climate management. During the consultation process, participants said that the commitment should address the lack of public, integrated climate policies and the insufficient civic participation in the management and planning of such policies. [66] The commitment is aligned with environmental civil society organizations, who argued that open government practices in Brazil can improve governmental climate actions. [67]

Two government employees discussed this commitment with the IRM researcher. Andréa Araújo (Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communication) [68] argued that civil society contributions bring valuable expertise to the design of climate indicators. Milena Ambrosio Telles [69] (Embrapa)        [70] highlighted the importance of using open data to generate evidence-based research and orient policy decision-making processes.

The commitment proposes gathering academic articles and best practices on climate evaluation (Milestones 9.1 and 9.2), planning evaluation activities like mapping climate change actors, defining indicators, running an awareness campaign (9.3−9.7), and publishing final evaluation results (9.8).

The commitment is specific enough to be verifiable, and it addresses access to information through the public discussion of methodology, scope, and indicators.

The commitment has a minor potential impact. The milestones are limited to preliminary stages of stakeholder collaboration and do not include policy implementation.

Next steps

The commitment addresses the highly relevant issue of climate change. However, if the milestones are completed, they need not be carried forward in future plans. This commitment builds upon climate-related commitments in the previous action plan, suggesting a trend of government and civil society interest in the issue.

To increase their impact, the milestones could include policy implementation and monitoring, institutionalize civic participation, and use open science and open data mechanisms.

Transitional Results Report

Commitment 9. Open government and climate

Completion: LIMITED

This commitment aimed to enhance climate policy planning and management through effective civic participation, specifically by evaluating policies and actions to expand spaces for social participation. However, only two out of the eight milestones comprising this commitment were fully completed. [131] The completed milestones related to the identification and mapping of academic studies and articles on climate change impact (Milestone 1) and national and international documents and experiences in evaluating climate change policies and actions (Milestone 2).

Challenges and disagreements between civil society and the government regarding the scope of policies to be evaluated especially affected the implementation of Milestone 3. This ultimately led to civil society formally withdrawing from the commitment, as stated in a document signed by several civil society organizations available in the online repository. [132]

While the government reported advancement on other milestones, [133] no specific evidence was provided to support these claims. In the final execution report of the commitment, it was evident that the conclusion of most milestones was dependent on the defined scope pursued and not accomplished under Milestone 3. [134] Despite the political context and the importance of establishing a legitimate space to continue the climate change agenda, this commitment did not generate significant results. The Brazilian OGP Coordinating Committee assessed that insufficient time and unfavorable conditions to fully implement the commitment contributed to its limited progress. [135] As such, there is no evidence of early results to report.