To achieve ambitious climate targets under the Paris Agreement, countries need more than political will – they need effective governance. This report examines how a mission-oriented approach can transform climate action. Analysing 15 countries' climate council assessments, the report reveals that, while many nations are incorporating elements of mission governance, significant gaps remain. It highlights promising examples of whole-of-government approaches, while identifying key challenges, such as limited societal engagement, weak co-ordination, and a lack of focus on experimentation and ecosystem mobilisation. The report argues that national climate commitments effectively function as overarching missions, and thus, can greatly benefit from applying mission governance principles. It recommends integrating missions into climate mitigation efforts, applying these principles to policy design and implementation, and deploying targeted missions to address specific climate challenges. By embracing a holistic, mission-driven strategy, countries can enhance their climate action and achieve their ambitious targets.
Harnessing Mission Governance to Achieve National Climate Targets
Abstract
Executive Summary
Under the Paris Agreement, many countries have committed to ambitious national climate mitigation targets to limit global temperature rise through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Meeting these ambitious and time-bound targets requires not only strong political support but also robust public institutions to implement them. Reducing emissions requires an array of policy sectors to work together; a traditional, “siloed” approach to public sector governance is ill-suited to tackling this complex task. As recognised in the OECD Action Plan on Governing Green – part of the OECD Reinforcing Democracy Initiative – endorsed by Member countries at the 2022 OECD Public Governance Ministerial Meeting, innovative approaches to governance are needed that embrace complexity, help overcome administrative segmentation, and mobilise societal actors.
Missions and mission-oriented policies offer a new approach to the governance of societal transformations such as the green transition. Missions are clearly defined overarching policy objectives aimed at tackling a societal challenge within a specified timeframe. They have a clear mission statement and underlining targets. Mission-oriented policies are the policy frameworks put in place to realise mission objectives.
The national climate targets of the NDCs largely meet the criteria for missions. Yet, the mission-based approach is not being used to help achieve overarching climate change mitigation commitments. Such an approach could help translate ambitious objectives into adequate and effective public action. Forays have been made into climate-related mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs); however, these are largely confined to the science, technology and innovation (STI) policy domain and, while aimed at lowering emissions, tend to be disconnected from broader efforts to meet national climate targets. This severely limits their reach and impact.
This report analyses recent assessments from 15 countries’ climate councils against a set of mission governance principles (structure, strategic orientation, co-ordination, execution, and resources) developed by the OECD based on a review of existing practices and ambitions amongst mission practitioners. The analysis suggests that many countries are increasingly applying various principles of mission governance in their climate policy efforts, in many cases providing promising examples of whole-of-government approaches that can serve as blueprints for mission practitioners in other fields. At the same time, the assessment highlights a number of gaps or challenges that align with other mission governance principles, suggesting areas where the mission lens could help inform efforts to secure more effective climate action. By establishing clearer mandates, agencies and organisations could participate more fully in climate action. An emphasis on cultivating societal engagement and enduring political support could lead to more citizen participation and consistent policies resistant to short-term fluctuations. Improved horizontal and vertical co-ordination could align plans and resources more effectively across government levels and agencies. A mission-oriented approach could also help integrate climate considerations into core government processes such as budgeting and procurement. By focusing on developing necessary capabilities throughout the mission lifecycle, critical capacity gaps in climate action could be addressed. The promotion of continuous adaptation and learning could enhance the agility and effectiveness of climate strategies. Furthermore, the mission approach's emphasis on encouraging private sector investment could help multiply the effect of public funding in climate action. Better applying these principles in national climate governance should ensure a more holistic approach to tackling the complex challenge and ambitious objectives of the climate transition.
Finally, other important components of mission governance are largely unmentioned in the climate councils’ assessments, suggesting potential blind spots in countries’ efforts to meet their climate targets. This includes the mobilisation of ecosystems, which, despite some promising initiatives, is most often limited to stakeholder consultation and suffers from a lack of clear leadership and management structures. Experimentation is also largely overlooked, both in terms of public sector innovation and efforts to guide research and innovation systems towards meeting the targets. Notably, these are two core aspects of mission-oriented innovation policies for net zero, suggesting that these STI initiatives could play a more pivotal role in climate governance if they were better integrated into meeting overarching national targets and supporting an enabling environment.
Based on these findings, the report recommends the following:
Governments should explicitly integrate missions and mission governance into climate mitigation efforts.
Considering that national climate commitments effectively represent overarching mission statements, their implementation could benefit from explicitly harnessing the principles of mission governance. Given the complexity and breadth of climate mitigation, this entails a multi-level mission-oriented approach, addressing both the overarching mission inherent to the NDC, as well as efforts to meet the more narrowly defined sub-targets that typically underpin them.
Governments should leverage mission governance principles in the design, assessment, and deployment of climate mitigation policies.
The mission governance principles can help ensure that an adequate whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach appropriate to the scale of the challenge is adopted. As outlined in this report on an aggregate level (see Chapter 4), building on similar practices amongst many climate councils, the principles can guide policymakers in identifying country-specific opportunities to strengthen systemic climate action.
Within this context, governments should deploy, or deploy more effectively, targeted missions to address specific climate mitigation challenges.
Securing a mission-oriented approach to the governance of the overarching climate mitigation efforts creates an enabling environment for deploying more targeted missions to address the specific sectoral targets or strategies that underpin the national targets. With tailored mission structures and strategies, these sub-target missions can make better use of ecosystem mobilisation and innovation effects. Countries can enhance their climate mitigation efforts by 1) orienting these missions to address specific challenges or leverage unique strengths and 2) identifying transformative policies via a systems approach. These targeted missions, which could be scaled up from current mission-oriented innovation policies for net zero, should be integrated into the overall national climate strategy, ensuring they contribute directly to overarching goals while benefiting from the enabling context of mission governance.
