Lessons from Using Indicators to Evaluate a Municipal Climate Action Plan: A Case Study of the City of Gothenburg

Abstract

This thesis aimed to investigate the monitoring and evaluation processes of the City of Gothenburg’s ECP, with a particular focus on indicators. Monitoring and evaluation are processes that often fall short, with common challenges being the selection of appropriate indicators or a lack of structures to support their use. The employed methodologies included a literature review, interviews with employees at the Environmental Administration and a thematic analysis, and an evaluation of the indicators, the indicator system and the data through the use of two frameworks and select data quality criteria. The first main finding concerns the indicators’ limited identification of distributional effects across space and groups. Second, no unified framework for indicator development was identified, and it instead relies on a few guiding principles, for example quantitative measurability and the possibility to follow up indicators over time. The third finding are the challenges and opportunities of indicator use and data structures in the evaluation process of the ECP, as a result of operating as a large organization. Lastly, public participation could be utilized in future iterations of the ECP to ensure that the indicators align with public concerns and values. To tackle these issues, recommendations include the adoption of a formalized framework grounded in the guiding principles, developing a shared data system for better management and collection of data, and increasing public participation by engaging in citizen dialogue.