Year: 2022 | Topic: Lobby and advocacy

Description

In the period 2017-2021, the programme aimed at influencing Belgian decision makers to develop and implement an ambitious Belgian policy in favour of climate justice, to enhance European ambitions and to implement the Paris agreement. The PWG is composed by CSOs (developmental, environmental, youth), trade unions, mutual health insurance companies and civic initiatives advocating for climate justice and amounts to more than 70 members, with a core political group of 11 members.

The final evaluation has started in March 2022 and captured policy influencing conducted in the period October 2020-December 2021. The impact study focused on the influence of the PWG on the Belgian positions during the consecutive international COP meetings that take place every year in the period November- December, with exception of COP 26 that was postponed in 2020 with one year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Result

To gain insight in the contribution of the Climate Coalition to policy change, a qualitative mixed-methodology approach was applied:

(1) A timeline exercise, combined with outcome harvesting was useful to identifying outcomes and impact, which informed case selection for the impact assessment;

(2) For the Endline, two cases (declarations and pledges made by Belgium during COP26) have been selected for further analysis applying contribution analysis and process tracing;

(3) Process tracing involved an assessment of the strength of the evidence. Evidence for the policy change that had taken place and for the contributing causal mechanism (project mechanisms, cooperating mechanisms, rival explanations, contact factors) was collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews with political decision makers (cabinets, member of parliament, study services of political parties, administrations) and external resource persons. Members of parliament of all political parties (except Vlaams Belang and Défi) participating in the parliamentary climate commissions, all climate related cabinets and all climate administrations at Flemish, Walloon, Brussels and Federal level have been interviewed.

(4) Contribution analysis assessed the likelihood that causal mechanisms had taken place and their respective contribution to the policy change, resulting in a substantiated conclusion on the contribution claim.

To gain insight in the extent knowledge and expertise on climate justice of the members of the PWG was enhanced and to assess the leverage and credibility of the Climate Coalition a mixed-method approach was applied, consisting in an online survey among all members of the Climate Coalition and semi-structured interviews with 15 members of the Climate Coalition. The leverage and credibility of the Climate Coalition was also included in the interviews with the lobby targets.