Implementing sustainability policy more successfully. Developing transformative policy mixes using the example of climate change adaptation. Discussion paper

Policy instruments are an essential design tool for implementing transformation processes and the associated changes towards a more sustainable society. Often, ideas for new policy instruments are not implemented because they fail, for example, due to resistance from the actors responsible for implementation. In order to conduct a structured analysis of potentially suitable policy instruments, the authors propose a multi-criteria evaluation approach consisting of basic and transformation criteria. This is done using the example of the transformation field of climate change adaptation. Basic criteria such as effectiveness, efficiency and synergy potential enable an assessment of the extent to which policy instruments and policy mixes contribute to climate change adaptation, are recommendable from an economic point of view and can also have positive effects. In order to assess whether these policy instruments are also suitable to trigger the necessary fundamental and systemic change at a given point in time, i.e. to have a transformative effect, supplementary criteria are needed. The so-called transformation criteria are developed along success factors for transformative processes. These include the attractiveness of change ideas, analyses of the actors and policy fields concerned, resistance of actors and time resources, and the issue of dealing with complexity. A set of 14 transformation criteria is proposed and exemplarily applied to 3 policy instruments of climate change adaptation. As a result, further methodological developments are proposed, recommendations for the application of the transformation criteria in policy advice are formulated and ways for future application and transfer to other policy areas are pointed out.