Environmental policy evaluation: Experiences in the Netherlands

In many countries there is an ongoing debate on the choice of an adequate set of indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental policy and the sustainability of current developments. Experiences in the Netherlands, in the past decades, have shown that this is a never-ending debate. Political preferences for certain types of indicators change over time and differ between the various stakeholders. Therefore, any set of indicators should be broad enough to be resilient to changing political climates and to facilitate discussions between various stakeholders on trade-offs between economic and ecological targets.

► Over time, the selection of environmental indicators that policymakers consider to be relevant is subject to change. ► The indicators preferred by policymakers are influenced by the prevailing framing of environmental problems. ► At times of economic crisis, decoupling indicators (associated with a weak sustainability frame) are more appreciated. ► During periods of high economic growth, indicators related to absolute limits seem to receive more attention.