Page - (000052) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

climate action.With the adoption of the SustainableDevelopmentGoals, this has become more important and we hope to see evaluative evidence emerging the comingdecade. 2.9 WhenWillWeAchieveSystemsChange? The comparison of the seven comprehensive evaluations published in 2014, and someinfluentialevaluationsfromtheyearsbefore, leads totheconclusionthat ifwe want toachieve transformational change,weneed toensure that the impactdrivers working towards such a change are stronger than the impact drivers that cause climate change. An important part of the fight to mitigate climate change is therefore outside of climate change action: continue thefight against public subsi- dies fornon-sustainableuseofnatural resources; takeaction toensure that thecosts of climatechangearepaid forby the“polluters”, by industries andpeoplewhoare causingclimatechangetohappen.Until that timeclimatechangeactionwillconsist of beautiful flowers in a walled garden: just a demonstration that we can have a beautiful planet, if only the winds blowing against us would not destroy these beautiful flowers if they emerge from thewalled garden. The conclusions we draw from the seven comprehensive evaluations are as follows. 1. The OPS5 conclusion that a high percentage of climate action is effective is supportedbyall other comprehensiveevaluations that havebeenable to lookat effectiveness; 2. Forreductionofgreenhousegasemissions, theenergysectorandenergypolicies hold greatest promise, and tackling energy efficiency issues is more effective than support for renewable energy, but the latter is effective as well, even if costlier. 3. Subsidies for non-sustainable use of natural resources (fossil fuels, agricultural practices, overuseofwater resources, etc.)prevent the reductions ingreenhouse gas emissions to havemore than amarginal impact on climate change: i.e. the pace of climate change is slowed almost imperceptibly. 4. The micro-macro paradox is thus shown to exist: anything the international organizations and the bilateral donors do to prevent climate change continues to be effective in its own right, but powerless against the enormous spending power and damage done by subsidies for non-sustainable use of natural resources,with fossil fuel subsidies as the largest barrier to change. 5. Tochangethesystem,actionfrommanypartners,bottom-upandtop-down,with full recognition of cross-cutting issues such as gender, equity, inclusiveness is needed, andevaluative evidence shows that piecesof thepuzzle areknownand canbe effectively set up andused. 6. To change the system, an important input of technology is needed – the shift from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economyneeds technological innovation and 2 ActiononClimateChange:WhatDoes ItMean andWhereDoes ItLeadTo? 31