Assessing intergovernmental climate initiatives: An expectations-based framework

This working paper from the World Resources Institute proposes a new expectations-based framework to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of government-led cooperative climate initiatives, addressing a gap in formalized transparency and accountability mechanisms.

• The author argues that while coordinated intergovernmental climate action has increased, particularly during UN climate conferences, there is a lack of clear standards or formalized transparency and accountability mechanisms to determine if these initiatives are achieving their goals.
• Existing assessment tools are deemed limited because they primarily focus on non-state-actor-led or multi-stakeholder initiatives, emphasize institutional structures or outputs, and fail to consider how an initiative evolves over time.
• The proposed expectations framework evaluates cooperative initiatives across three stages—initial pledges, emerging efforts, and established initiatives delivering impact—based on four key elements: governance structures, transparency via monitoring and reporting, implementation aligned with objectives, and complementarity to the wider climate cooperation landscape.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Assessing intergovernmental climate initiatives: An expectations-based framework. https://www.wri.org/research/assessing-intergovernmental-climate-initiatives-expectations-based-framework

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Assessing intergovernmental climate initiatives: An expectations-based framework. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/assessing-intergovernmental-climate-initiatives-expectations-based-framework.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Assessing intergovernmental climate initiatives: An expectations-based framework |url=https://www.wri.org/research/assessing-intergovernmental-climate-initiatives-expectations-based-framework |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendassessing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Assessing intergovernmental climate initiatives: An expectations-based framework}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/assessing-intergovernmental-climate-initiatives-expectations-based-framework}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }