At the EU level, there is great need for legal reforms concerning the liability of enterprises for violations of human rights and environmental norms abroad. This is the result of a study co-authored by Christiane Gerstetter, Fellow Ecologic Legal and pro-bono lawyer for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.Read more
Today, the loss of biological diversity has already reached alarming proportions, proportions which climate change is not expected to reach for several decades. Despite this, climate change continues to dominate political debates, whereas biodiversity is still seen as an issue of secondary importance. In this publication, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Senior Policy Advisor of Ecologic Institute, summarizes why a political and institutional reassessment of biodiversity is so necessary.Read more
The committees of the European Parliament play a critical role in ensuring the effectiveness of EU policy during both the development of legislation and policy and its subsequent implementation. The Committee on Foreign Affairs (Affaires étrangères, AFET) is one of the 20 Committees of the European Parliament and is, among others, responsible for the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Ecologic Institute is leading a consortium of six institutes given a framework contract to provide the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy CommitteesRead more
Christiane Gerstetter, Fellow Ecologic Legal, provided an introduction to various international agreements to a Palestinian audience during a workshop in Ramallah on 29-30 March 2010. The workshop was convened by the Environmental Quality Authority of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Its aim was to raise awareness among Palestinians about international environmental agreements.Read more
This article by Christiane Gerstetter, Dominic Marcellino, and Elena von Sperber explores the state of the climate technology transfer negotiations following the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. The article appears in the Spring 2010 edition of the journal Carbon and Climate Law Review.Read more
The project’s objective is to confer legal capacity on the Adaptation Fund Board in Germany. The Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) is the operating entity of the Adaptation Fund, a financial mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. The Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol decided in 2008 that the Adaptation Fund Board be conferred such legal capacity as necessary for the discharge of certain functions. Ecologic Institute provides legal expertise to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) regarding the German offer to host the Adaptation Fund Board and theRead more
Climate change poses several threats to human security. Hydro-climatic hazards such as droughts and floods have the potential to trigger or exacerbate social tensions, intra- and inter-state conflict. The EU-funded project CLICO will examine the relationships between hydro-climatic hazards, human security and conflict. The project will also develop recommendations for the best types of policies and institutions to avoid or better prepare for water conflicts related to climate change. The project’s third policy brief is now available for download.Read more
In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama declared the need for “serious investments in clean energy” because “the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy”. In a new paper funded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States under the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative, authors from the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC andRead more
As part of this year’s theme “Climate Change and Security Policy,” the Tönissteiner Kreis held this panel discussion in cooperation with the International Club of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Stephan Sina from Ecologic Institute along with Steffen Bauer (German Development Institute) and Bernd Mesovic (Pro Asyl) sat on the panel. The discussion was moderated by Dagmar Dehmer (Tagesspiegel).Read more
Environmental policy-makers and stakeholders from the non-governmental, academic and private sectors convened in The Hague, The Netherlands from 26 July to 6 August 2010 as part of the second ICAP Summer School for Emerging and Developing Countries. The intensive two-week training event, designed and organised by the Ecologic Institute on behalf of and in collaboration with the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), provided insights into the complexities of emissions trading systems to enable participants’ countries to harmonise their environmental policies for full participation in a future global carbon market.
