Policy audit of Article 19: Climate. Efficacy and efficiency of policy under Article 19 of the Dutch government budget for 2012-2016

In collaboration with Kwink Consultants CE Delft has carried out a policy audit of the Dutch government’s climate policy over the period 2012-2016. The study was performed in accordance with the standard RPE guidelines and assesses the efficacy and efficiency of that policy. It also considers the policy’s directive function: because climate policy has a global reach and impacts so many economic sectors, coordination forms a key aspect.

According to the audit there are indications that the policies pursued achieved the stated targets, though only limited information is available on how these policies were fleshed out. Several recommendations are made:

• Structure the budget around policy measures, so expenditures can be unambiguously linked to policies.
• Set up a carefully planned, policy-transcending review programme, so climate policy can be evaluated in its entirety.
• Make the directive role explicit.
• Improve guarantees that voluntary agreements are indeed adhered to, via agreements on additional regulatory or financial policies to address situations where targets threaten to be missed.

The audit was supervised by a committee comprising representatives of the following ministries: Interior and Kingdom Relations; Foreign Affairs; Finance; Economic Affairs and Climate; Infrastructure and Water Management. An independent assessment of the auditing process and the quality of the audit itself was provided by the independent researchers Prof. Dr. André Faaij and Dr. Jan Anne Annema on the basis of their own particular expertise.