| Abstract [eng] |
Green economy is a new type of economic system aimed at harmonizing economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Governments seek to influence green economies with political measures, and green deal policies could be defined as such. Nevertheless, green economy and green deal remain under researched by Lithuanian academics. Due to ambitious goals to solve climate change challenges, abundant funding and high coverage, evaluation of the green deal policy measures is relevant both in European Union and Lithuania. However, no ex-ante evaluations of European green deal implementation in Lithuania have been carried out so far. Therefore, problem of the research is defined as a lack of ex-ante evaluation of the green deal implementation measures. Research object is the implementation measures of European green deal policies in Lithuania. Based on the problem of the research aim of the project is to conduct an ex-ante evaluation of the green deal implementation measures in Lithuania. There are three objectives to achieve the aim of the project. The first objective is to uncover the links between green economy and green deal concepts, reveal the theoretical aspects of these concepts as well as of the ex-ante evaluation and to build an ex-ante evaluation methodology. Implementation measures of green economy and green deal could be defined as either enforcing environmentally friendly behaviour or punishing for polluting. Two theory-based evaluation approaches were combined to build an ex-ante evaluation methodology, namely program logic model and theory of change. Ex-ante evaluation of the green deal implementation policy measures methodology consists of evaluation criteria linked with corresponding parts of the evaluation model and specific evaluation questions for green economy and green deal. The second objective is to carry out analysis of green economy implementation measures in different countries and thus complement ex-ante evaluation methodology. Analysis of Canada, China and Denmark allowed to compare these countries and revealed that relevance, effectiveness, impact, and coherence criteria were met or partially met in all countries, efficiency criterion was not met in neither, and sustainability criterion was met in China and Denmark but not Canada. It was also revealed that policy measures enforcing environmentally friendly behaviour are prevailing in all countries. Analysis also let to assign two specific indicators for each criterion thus supplementing and detailing evaluation methodology. The third objective is to carry out the ex-ante evaluation of European green deal implementation measures in Lithuania, using the supplemented methodology. Evaluation revealed that relevance and coherence criteria were met, impact and sustainability criteria were partially met whereas efficiency and effectiveness criteria were not. it was determined that green deal implementation policy measures in Lithuania are mostly aimed at economic dimension whereas there are considerably less measures planned for both environmental and social dimensions. It has also been revealed that most of the planned policy measures are aimed at enforcing environmentally friendly behaviour but not to punish for transgressions. It was determined that green deal policy in Lithuania is primarily viewed as European Union priority but not as a national strategy. Lithuanian society is poorly included and informed about the benefits and implementation of the green deal policy measures; this lack of inclusion leads to limited impact of the green deal policy implementation measures. Scientific literature review method was applied for analysing the concepts, links and theoretical aspects of the green economy, green deal, and ex-ante evaluation as well as for conducting analysis of the green economy implementation measures in different countries, building and supplementing methodology of the ex-ante evaluation. Ex-ante evaluation of the green deal policy implementation measures in Lithuania was conducted by using analysis of the secondary sources as well as qualitative data analysis. Ex-ante evaluation of the green deal policy implementation measures in Lithuania not only offers valuable and new academic knowledge but also useful information for policy makers to evaluate both strengths and weaknesses of the planned green deal implementation measures. |
