With the National Climate Initiative (NKI), the Federal Environment Ministry has been supporting climate protection projects throughout Germany since June 2008, contributing to the achievement of Germany's climate protection goals. During this time, the NKI's guidelines and calls for proposals have been further developed and new guidelines and calls for proposals initiated, in order to tap strategic climate protection potentials, particularly in the target groups of municipalities, business and private households. All along this process, Independent experts have continuously evaluated the impact of the National Climate Initiative, assessed gaps and identified potentials for further development of the NKI. Overall, the effect of the National Climate Initiative to date has been largely positive, also in terms of its contribution to national climate protection targets. In the fourth edition in a suite of contracts on the evaluation and further development of the NKI, a consortium of Öko-Institut, IFEU, Fraunhofer ISI, Ice-Tex, Prognos, Dr. Tews, Prof. Dr. Klinski and Ecologic Institute is examining and evaluating the NKI's funding programmes and developing proposals for their further development.

The project comprises six work packages:

1. Planning: The team defines evaluation criteria on the basis of which the funding programmes will be assessed.
2. Implementation: The funding programmes are briefly described and evaluated by means of a performance review.
3. Amendment: Existing funding programmes will be amended and the networking meetings of the master plan municipalities will be scientifically accompanied.
4. Further development: The consortium develops proposals for the further development of the NKI's funding portfolio in order to support the Federal Government's climate protection goals.
5. Public relations work: The ongoing public relations work for the NKI is supported through articles and workshops, especially with regard to the evaluation and its results.
6. Project-relevant meetings: General discussions, networking meetings and specialist conferences are held to further coordinate the course of the project.

The consortium applies the following approach to the project: First, evaluation criteria are defined. Then the projects are grouped into clusters in order to then map the causal chains within the clusters. Subsequently, data and information are combined, actual results are compared to the target values, and the greenhouse gas savings are calculated. Based on the results, the innovation effects resulting from the funding programme are estimated, evaluated and recommendations for the further development of the programme are developed.

Ecologic Institute is involved in all work packages and leads the work for evaluating the programme for innovative climate protection projects.