Smart Net-Zero

March 30, 2026 | EU CAP Network |

The EU CAP Network has published new guidelines to strengthen the evaluation of environmental and climate instruments within EU Member States' Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plans. Developed by a Thematic Working Group on Evaluation of Environment and Climate Architecture, with support from the European Evaluation Helpdesk, the guidelines address a recognized need: assessing not just whether individual interventions work, but whether the full combination of instruments—including conditionality, eco-schemes, agri-environment-climate commitments, and investments—functions as a coherent system toward the CAP's climate, natural resource, and biodiversity objectives. The guidelines offer evaluation teams structured frameworks for defining scope, selecting indicators, examining synergies and trade-offs between instruments, and assessing cost-effectiveness. A companion Good Practice Workshop held on March 16–17, 2026 in Larnaca, Cyprus, gathered participants from most EU Member States to apply the guidelines in practice and share cross-national evaluation experiences to inform ongoing and future CAP programming periods.