On the occasion of the launch of the 2013 Arctic Summer College, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Europe Program and Ecologic Institute welcomed William M. Eichbaum, vice president of Marine and Arctic Policy of the World Wildlife Fund, R. Andreas Kraemer, Director of Ecologic Institute, and Dr. Kelly K. Falkner, Director of Polar Programs of the National...Read more
Cultural Vistas and Ecologic Institute will hold a conversation on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Clean Energy Economy on Thursday, April 25 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Cultural Vistas Headquarters in New York. The discussion will focus on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its potential economic and political effects, as well as...Read more
The EU-funded research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) held its launch event from 23 to 25 January 2013 in Brussels. The meeting was organized by Ecologic Institute, coordinator of the research project, and the Institute for Environmental Security (IES).
The meeting brought together researchers from 11 European universities and think tanks. The meeting was the kick-off to...Read more
As renewable energy sources are more widely used and corresponding support systems expanded, the economic significance of the sector is also growing. This, in turn, also leads to a growing potential for trade disputes involving renewable energy production. In this project on renewable energy law, the Ecologic Institute together with the Institute for Economic Law of the University Halle-Wittenberg provides scientific advice to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety. The project focuses on the international legal framework relevant to supportRead more
Information on the environmental characteristics of products, such as on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused during their production or their energy efficiency, are essential in order to allow consumers to make informed choices about which products to buy. This project investigated different design options for product-related environmental information addressed at consumers. Ecologic Institute contributed, in particular, an analysis of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) requirements for legal rules on environmental labels. The study is available for download.
The projectRead more
In May 2012, Benjamin Boteler of Ecologic Institute was invited to present at the international conference "Key Developments in the Port and Maritime Sector" on the latest developments in EU and international environmental policy and their implications for the sector. The conference, held in Antwerp (Belgium) and organised by the World Conference on Transport Research Society - Special Interest Groups 2 Maritime and Ports, brought together a rich mix of academics, industry representatives, and policy makers to present and discuss state-of-the-art scientific developments in the sector.Read more
The project aims to enhance transparency on voluntary sustainability standards and increase opportunities for sustainable trade. It addresses these challenges by collecting, organizing and disseminating information on voluntary sustainability standards and related research results in a web-based tool. This web-based tool called ITC Standards Map centralizes information such as the standards' content requirements, the related verification and certification mechanisms, product scope, market outreach and standards-related research results. The information is made accessible to producers,Read more
The International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) successfully convened another ICAP training course on Emissions Trading for Emerging Economies and Developing Countries to build capacity in emissions trading systems (ETS). The ICAP Training Course 2012 took place in Alajuela (Costa Rica) from 19 to 28 March 2012. Benjamin Görlach and Michael Mehling of Ecologic Institute led the course and spoke about ways to avoid carbon leakage and competitive distortions as well as the impact of policies on the design of ETS.
The Training Course was the fifth of its kind and continues theRead 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. The study concludes that 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 IPRs on fighting poverty by contrast. This is the result of a study, presented by Christiane Gerstetter (Ecologic Institute) andRead 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