Ex post evaluation of cohesion policy programmes 2000-2006 financed by the European Regional Development Fund in Objective 1 and 2 regions: Work package 5b: Environment and climate change

The objective is to evaluate the contribution of the ERDF to the implementation of environmental strategies in the EU. It will cover the ERDF interventions in the environmental sector as well as the contributions of the ERDF to mitigate the climate change. The scope of the study will be restricted to the appraisal of 14 selected Member States (Agrotec will deal with the United Kingdom, Greece, Italy and Poland) and selected programmes (2000-2006) that accounted for more than 90 per cent of the total environmental investment from the Structural Funds. In particular the main tasks are: (i) examine the theoretical foundations and limits for the contribution of environmental infrastructure investment to the development of regions;(ii) present an overview of features of Environment Strategies in Member States; (iii) collect information of the main outcomes from ERDF investments in environmental infrastructure during 2000-2006;(iv) carry out case studies on the effects of ERDF interventions in general and on ERDF interventions in the fields of waste generation and management in particular; (v) make the experience of the 2000-2006 programming period in the field of climate change available for the design of the next generation of programmes, through writing a concise chapter covering fundamental features of programme design and implementation;(vi) assess the contribution of ERDF to national and EU environment strategies.