Strategic Adjustment and Advancement of the National Climate Initiative: Potential and Barrier Analysis, Development of new guidelines and directives, development of a monitoring concept

Project Background

The National Climate Initiative (NKI) of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) was launched in 2008 and aimed to support and promote various climate protection measures in Germany. The NKI funded projects and programs that were especially created for the initiative, but also served to extend the financing of several projects that have existed prior to the NKI. The collaboration partners were the Ecologic Institute, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg, the Öko-Institut e.V. and Dr. Hans-Joachim Ziesing. The project consortium analysed the implementation of the NKI funding guidelines with regard to the goals of the initiative and came up with new funding focus areas. The range of projects and programs were wide, targeting industry, consumers, and municipalities on areas as diverse as environmental education and training, energy efficiency, mobility, renewable energies, and climate-friendly investing.

Type and scope of services

Arepo was responsible for management of the overall project. In addition, Arepo was mandated with the drawing up of potential and barrier analysis as the basis for the development of new funding focus areas. In addition, it was responsible for the scientific monitoring of the municipal directive (KRL) and the drafting of new funding guidelines. As part of the development of the directive for municipalities, Arepo developed a barrier and target group analysis on the basis of a municipal survey, designed new funding priorities and carried out focus groups. In addition, a monitoring concept as well as an indicator set for the meta-level was created. One component of the NKI monitoring is the monitoring tool for the municipal directive. This tool was developed and implemented within the framework of the project, and a target group-specific set of indicators was developed for different funding circumstances. Dr. Christine Wörlen was also responsible for the development and adjustment of the German cooling directive.
The tasks of Arepo thus included

  • Identification of new funding priorities
  • Policy design
  • Progress control
  • Barrier and target group analysis
  • Survey
  • Strategy development
  • Networking
  • Development of criteria and indicator catalogue for the monitoring of the NKI funding guidelines, in particular the municipal directive