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Ecologic Newsletter No 57 - November 2007

Ecologic Newsletter No 57 - November 2007

Ecologic Institute Newsletter
  1. Over 650 participants attend Beyond GDP conference
  2. ETTAR - Workshop on Transport and the Environment: Barriers to the take up of environmental technologies in the transport sector - Press Release
  3. Bioenergy and Climate Friendly Farming Practices: Approaches in Germany and the United States - Riverside Chat
  4. Transatlantic perspectives on biodiversity and climate change - Dinner Dialogue with Rebecca Patton and Miranda A. Schreurs
  5. Public Participation in the Environmental Regulatory Process and its Influence on Environmental Outcomes - Transatlantic Lunch with Jason Johnston
  6. Heavily Modified Water Bodies in the Water Framework Directive - Lecture
  7. Political, economic, environmental and social aspects of global biomass production and bioenergy - Lecture
  8. Certification schemes and cross compliance - Synergies to explore? - Lecture

1. Over 650 participants attend Beyond GDP conference
The international conference Beyond GDP took place in the European Parliament on 19 and 20 November, with over 650 participants from more than 50 countries in attendance. Joaquin Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Policy, noted in his speech that "we need to find measures that will complement GDP and build a more nuanced and accurate understanding of economic and societal progress". Commissioner Dimas announced that the European Commission will launch a communication in 2008 that will include a roadmap for action integrating ideas from the Beyond GDP conference. Ecologic was the lead partner in the consortium organising the event. Over 3,700 unique visitors came to the conference website during the event, where speeches were available live via video webstreaming. For those who missed the event, on-demand video of speaker presentations will soon be available online from the conference website.
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2. ETTAR - Workshop on Transport and the Environment: Barriers to the take up of environmental technologies in the transport sector - Press Release
This workshop focussed on identifying the barriers impeding and the drivers promoting the uptake of environmental technologies in the freight transport sector. The workshop discussed potential and existing initiatives made by the logistics companies and/or their customers as a model to improve the environmental quality of their transports irrespective of any political incentives or legislation.
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3. Bioenergy and Climate Friendly Farming Practices: Approaches in Germany and the United States - Riverside Chat
Bioenergy and climate friendly farming practices were discussed at the first in a series of Transatlantic Ecologic Riverside Chats that took place in Berlin on 17 August 2007. The event was held on the occasion of the visit of 30 farmers as well as policy makers, scientists, and journalists with an agricultural background from within Germany and the United States in the context of a transatlantic farmer-to-farmer exchange. During the dialogue, different strategies in Germany and the USA on the challenges of climate change and the issue of producing biofuels became evident and were attributed to different underlying policy approaches in Germany and the USA.
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4. Transatlantic perspectives on biodiversity and climate change - Dinner Dialogue with Rebecca Patton and Miranda A. Schreurs
On 11 October 2007, a transatlantic Ecologic Dinner Dialogue was held in Berlin to celebrate the launch of The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) first European office and to discuss EU and US policies on biodiversity and climate change. The guest of honor, Rebecca Patton, Chief Conservation Strategies Officer for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), was joined by her colleagues Sascha Müller-Kraenner, the new European Representative as well as Roberto Troya, Director of International Government Relations and Andreas Lehnhoff, Director for the Mesoamerica & Caribbean for the Conservancy. The keynote speaker was Miranda Schreurs, Professor at the Free University in Berlin, who is an expert in transatlantic environmental policy.
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5. Public Participation in the Environmental Regulatory Process and its Influence on Environmental Outcomes - Transatlantic Lunch with Jason Johnston
On 7 November 2007, an Ecologic Transatlantic Lunch Dialogue was held in Berlin in honour of Jason Johnston. Jason Johnston is the Robert G. Fuller, Jr. Professor and Director, of the Program on Law, Environment and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia, PA USA. The transatlantic lunch dialogue was held in advance of his lecture on "Climate Change Policy for Realists" on  29 November 2007 at the American Academy in Berlin as part of the Bosch Public Policy Lecture Series.  He is currently on sabbatical to conduct research related to public participation in environmental policy development, climate change and environmental law.
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6. Heavily Modified Water Bodies in the Water Framework Directive - Lecture
A conference on managing water resources in European mountain environments took place in the context of the Marie Curie Training Programme European Water Sustainable Goals (ESWG 2007-2010). Eleftheria Kampa spoke on heavily modified water bodies and hydromorphological pressures in the Water Framework Directive. Her presentation is available for download.
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7. Political, economic, environmental and social aspects of global biomass production and bioenergy - Lecture
The Oikos-conference "Limits to growth - growing beyond limits" took place from 18.-19. Oktober in St.Gallen (Switzerland). Different actors from research, economy and politics discussed the relationship between sustainable development and economic growth. During a workshop on limits to growth for renewable energies, Timo Kaphengst gave a presentation on the economic and political framework of bioenergy production as well as on the social and environmental impacts of the current bioenergy boom. His presentation is available for download.
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8. Certification schemes and cross compliance - Synergies to explore? - Lecture
At the 7th meeting of the European Commission's "Expert Group on Cross Compliance" Stephanie Schlegel, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on cross compliance and certification schemes, discussing the potential links and synergies between the two approaches. Her presentation is available for download.
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