The growing importance of international law for global climate cooperation is underscored in a new book chapter by Michael Mehling and Arturo Brandt, which recently appeared in the first manual on international environmental law for a Spanish-speaking audience.Read more
The Mediterranean, Middle East, and Sahel region is a climate change "hot spot". Whether climate change undermines human security and creates conflict or results in cooperation over water resources depends in part on the institutions in place and policies adopted in these areas. This report, compiled as part of the CLICO research projectRead more
On 30 September 2011, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a statement at an expert meeting on possible subject matters of a climate change act for Baden-Württemberg. The event was organized by the Ministry for Environment, Climate and Energy Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart.
Stephan Sina was invited to this workshop following his reports on a federal climate change act on behalf of WWF Germany as well as for the study "Ein Klimaschutzgesetz des Bundes – Analyse und Vorschläge zu seiner FortentwicklungRead more
On 24 and 25 October 2011, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Legal, and Gesa Homann, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, held a seminar on current issues in German and European environmental law at the Berlin Academy of Public Administration (Verwaltungsakademie Berlin).
This was the second time since 2010 that staff of Ecologic Institute have organized an event of this kind. The Berlin Academy of Public Administration is the primary institute for the training and postgraduate education of civil servants in the German Federal State of Berlin.
At the seminar,Read more
On 24 and 25 October 2011, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Legal, and Gesa Homann, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, held a seminar on current issues in German and European environmental law at the Berlin Academy of Public Administration (Verwaltungsakademie Berlin).
This was the second time since 2010 that staff of Ecologic Institute have organized an event of this kind. The Berlin Academy of Public Administration is the primary institute for the training and postgraduate education of civil servants in the German Federal State of Berlin.
At the seminar,Read more
In 2010, the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing. The Protocol sets forth rules on access to genetic resources. Among other purposes, research is a main driver of demand for genetic resources. Moreover, the protocol contains an obligation for Parties to ensure that the countries where the genetic resources are found and relevant indigenous communities in these countries are compensated for the use of genetic resources and related knowledge. Ecologic Institute is contributing to a studyRead more
Recent years have seen the climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change fail to achieve a major breakthrough on climate change mitigation, and no such breakthrough is expected in the near future. In a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Dr. Camilla Bausch and Michael Mehling evaluate various venues and institutions addressing the climate challenge, and assess their influence on the future of global mitigation efforts. The study is available for download.Read more
Developing countries are the main providers of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Conversely, most intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds and medicines are concentrated in developed countries. This has some disadvantages for developing countries. Thus, patents on seed or pharmaceutical products sometimes make the access to such products for the poor more difficult and expensive; there are hardly any positive effects of IPRsRead more
The international negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol have been shaped by the negotiations over a future climate regime. This includes the design of the regime beyond the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period in the year 2012. Ecologic Legal provides expert advice to the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, especially on the development and assessment of German and EU positions. The project builds on the work of the earlier project "Legal and institutional aspects of theRead more
In light of the increasing importance of climate change, a number of related legislative activities in Germany have occurred. However the resulting climate change law is incomplete and not always coherent. Professor Michael Rodi from the University of Greifswald and Ecologic Institute analysed German federal climate change law and developed proposals for its advancement. The legal study on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency isRead more
