At the 2nd International Conference on Sustainability Transitions, taking place from 13-15 June, 2011 in Lund, Sweden, a thematic session will be held on "Evaluation of Transition Policy". The session papers aim to reflect on (1) the role of policy evaluation in transitions and (2) requirements and methods for policy evaluation in transitions.

The session consists of four papers.

• Policy appraisal – a contribution to ‘better’ and more sustainable policies? (Sabine Weiland, FU Berlin)
• Systemic innovation policy for transitions to sustainability (Anna J. Wieczorek)
• Assessing sustainability transitions for policy (René Kemp and Paul Weaver)
• Evaluating ongoing sustainability transitions: A framework (Albert Faber and Floortje Alkemade)

The papers by Sabine Weiland and Anna Wieczorek both address the topic how policy evaluation can contribute to sustainability transitions in a broad sense. Anna Wieczorek emphasizes the systemic nature of sustainability transitions and the implications for policy and policy evaluation. Sabine Weiland focuses on the possibilities for policy appraisal to contribute to sustainability transitions. The other two papers investigate the specific characteristics of sustainability transitions and the resulting implications for policy evaluation frameworks. Kemp and Weaver explore some challenges for sustainability assessment of transition policies, stressing some specificities of multi-methodological approaches in evaluation practice. Faber and Alkemade take a complexity system approach to present an elaborated framework for transition policy, discussing theoretical foundations, methodological challenges and practical policy issues.

The session contributes to the conference theme on governance, power and politics as it focuses on methods for assessing the impact and effectiveness of tools & instruments (novel and conventional) to influence sustainability transitions in practice.