This article reviews evaluation methods used in the field of international development to draw lessons for the specific challenges of evaluating climate change adaptation. The three specific challenges identified in climate change and resilience monitoring and evaluation are: assessing attribution, creating baselines, and monitoring over long time horizons. This article highlights a range of methods that can be used in climate change adaptation and concludes that, although the methods are available, it is how they are applied that can help address these particular challenges. Methods used within an overarching conceptual framework that emphasizes mixed methods, participatory methodologies, and an iterative, learning focus can start to address the inherent challenges in evaluating responses to an uncertain future climate. This type of approach and application of a set of methods can also be useful in other areas of evaluation, where the outcomes are very long term and socioeconomic trends are extremely uncertain.

This paper investigates the status of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard in China and analyses key factors influencing its adoption by Chinese enterprises. It applies lessons learnt from studying the implementation of China's mandatory environmental regulations to assess the potential for using this voluntary standard to promote improved environmental performance. Our findings indicate that the number of certified enterprises is growing exponentially and that factors influencing adoption include international trade, transnational corporate policy, government-sponsored environmental projects, the potential for regulatory, economic, and environmental benefits, and the interest of top company management. Evaluation of case studies demonstrates that while the reported benefits of ISO 14001 adoption are often substantial, benefits are often qualitative and more normalised, while quantitative information is needed to conduct analysis that can be generalised within and across industrial sectors. Finally, we synthesise information presented in the body of the paper and make recommendations on steps that can be taken to maximise the efficacy of future ISO 14001 certifications.

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