Barrier and Potential Analyses

A general challenge in working with funding programs and projects remains that many actors fail to put a clear barrier or potential analysis at the beginning of their work. Well-founded barrier and potential analyzes can ensure that as many factors as possible, which for example mislead the target group into climate-damaging behavior in a particular area, are taken into account in the projects, and that interventions are optimally aligned.

A special focus of Arepo is therefore the analysis of barriers and potentials for the realization of climate protection measures and the promotion of renewable energies and energy efficiency.

For the analysis of barriers, we have developed an analytical framework based on a meta-analysis of market transformation processes in the field of energy efficiency, which has found a great deal of resonance among experts: the so-called Theory of No Change. It allows actors to identify barriers to rational action or behavior and market transformation processes. This analysis provides a sound basis for the creation of integrated programs, policies and projects that lead to effective climate protection. The concept can also be transferred to other topics.

In the strategic development of the National Climate Initiative (NKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, we were entrusted with the analyzes of barriers and the NKI-target groups. In the preparation of project briefs for the NKI, creating a typology of the projects according to the types of barriers they addressed, was also part of the assignment. As part of a meta-evaluation of climate protection evaluations, we identified the different types of barriers of informational, technical-structural or economic nature.