Article

Germany, Multilateralism and the Climate Crisis

How cooperation can strengthen climate policy

In the wake of Joe Biden's election as 46th President of the United States, Dr. Camilla Bausch contributed a blog post for the Global Public Policy Institute's Peace Lab on how multilateralism could help address the climate crisis. This is a timely contribution as it is complimentary to the current work on the German government's new White Paper on multilateralism. In her blog post, Dr. Bausch addresses a broad range of climate diplomacy topics, taking into account the role of Germany as well as the European Green Deal, the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN Agenda 2030, the dynamics within the G20 and the role of science.Read more

Publication

Von Äpfeln und Birnen

The EU is discussing whether its 2030 climate target should be a net target or gross target. Net targets treat CO2 removal and greenhouse gas emission reductions the same, although they are fundamentally different. To avoid a major step backwards, the EU should formulate separate targets for emissions reductions and CO2 removal, argues Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in his contribution to the Tagesspiegel.Read more

Publication

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Niedrigwasser und Trockenheit: Herausforderungen und Entwicklung sektorenübergreifender Anpassungsmaßnahmen auf Flussgebietsebene

Climate change is already causing an increase in extreme weather events, including an increase in the frequency and duration of periods of dry and drought conditions. In this paper, colleagues of the Emschergenossenschaft and Ecologic Institute summarize discussions on coordination and cooperation approaches for low water management and prevention at a workshop in the Emscher region.Read more

Publication

Sustainability

Handlungsoptionen einer nachhaltigen Bioökonomiepolitik

Wo ein Wille ist, ist auch ein Weg

Bioeconomy currently enjoys a high political priority; at the same time, the concept, which last received a boost in 2018 in the form of the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, is not without controversy and contains many conflicting goals. This is where the article by Zoritza Kiresiewa (Ecologic Institute), Franziska Wolff and Martin Möller (both Öko-Institut e.V.) comes in. The authors argue that bioeconomy can only contribute to the achievement of sustainability goals if the political framework is appropriate. Whether or not strategies will have an impact depends on each individual case. Bioeconomy pathways should be designed and tested accordingly.Read more

Publication

European Climate Law: Parliament sets the direction for Europe

Article in the Tagesspiegel

The European Parliament improves the Commission's proposal for a European Climate Law. Gross reduction target for 2030, legally binding climate neutrality targets, emissions budgets and a European Climate Council would make the European Climate Law what it should be: a reliable compass for the path to climate neutrality by 2050, writes Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in his article for Tagesspiegel.Read more

Publication

Biodiversity

Strengthening Coordination in River Basin Governance in Southern Spain

cooperation, incentives and persuasion

This Briefing Paper examines coordination and implementation challenges between the water and agricultural sectors in relation to water quantity in the context of WFD implementation in the Spanish Guadalquivir river basin. The challenges are interlinked by the underlying difficulty of imposing unpopular decisions against the will of powerful actors in the agricultural sector. To address these challenges, the authors suggest various coordination instruments based on incentives, voluntary cooperation, persuasion and information exchange.The Briefing Paper presents one of six analyses of cross-sectoral coordination challenges that were conducted as part of the STEER research project and on which separate Briefing Papers are available.Read more

Publication

Biodiversity

Coordination and Cooperation of Water Management, Nature Conservation and Open Space Development in the Emscher Restoration

The completed governance analysis shows that coordination in the Emscher catchment area is already effective. There is room for improvement when it comes to involving citizens and planning processes should also be characterised by a higher degree of flexibility. The analysis provides recommendations. This paper constitutes one of six analyses of cross-sectoral challenges in water governance. These have been conducted as part of the STEER research project and results are published in separate analyses and position papers.Read more

Publication

How to Recover from Corona without Choking the Planet

The danger of a rebound in greenhouse gas emissions after the coronavirus crisis is looming on the horizon. Michał Dorociak and Michał Kamiński of 300Gospodarka, and Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discuss in an OpEd for the EU Observer how the EU recovery programmes can avoid post-crisis emission increases.Read more

Publication

Governance