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Countries around the world are increasingly developing policies to address climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While this trend is encouraging, policies will only be successful in meeting the climate challenge to the extent that they are fully implemented. Tracking the progress of a diverse range of climate-related policies in a consistent manner has presented a challenge to analysts, advocates, and policymakers. This paper offers a framework for tracking climate policies through the process of adoption, implementation, and eventually to impact.

The framework is designed to provide guidance on selecting milestones and indicators that help track the progress of policy adoption and implementation. It also provides a set of in-depth questions to help users probe more deeply into the reasons for implementation success or failure.

The framework guides users through five key steps:

• First, users identify and characterize the policy to be tracked in specific, concrete terms. They determine whether the policy in question is a broad policy or plan or a specific policy instrument that obligates or incentivizes GHG mitigation. They also determine whether the policy has yet been adopted and has begun to be implemented.

• Second, for policies that have not yet been adopted, users identify the applicable legislative or regulatory milestones that will mark progress toward adoption.

• Third, users develop policy implementation indicators. These indicators cover inputs to policy implementation, such as finance or other resources, as well as activities and effects associated with implementation. Implementation activities may include those associated with licensing, permitting, and procurement; information collection and tracking; compliance and enforcement; or other policy administration activities. Implementation indicators also cover intermediate effects—changes in behavior, technology, processes, or practices that result from the policy—as well as GHG and non-GHG effects.

• Fourth, users develop a plan for tracking milestones and indicators over time. The tracking plan identifies data sources, monitoring frequencies, methodologies, and quality control measures.

• Finally, users implement the plan and report their findings.

In addition to the five key steps, the framework provides a set of in-depth questions designed to help users probe more deeply into the reasons for implementation success or failure, as well as a set of worksheets for use in developing milestones, indicators, and tracking plans.