Maintaining a strong EU and implementing effective climate policies go hand in hand with one another. Indeed, they are pretty much the best of friends. A stable, prosperous and climate-resilient Europe requires effective climate action; and effective climate action needs a strong EU. When addressed from this angle, there is a lot of agreement among EU policymakers, who often speak about the importance of climate action when addressing the future of the EU. However, there is more to it than general agreement. Climate policies and the future of the EU can reinforce each other in concrete ways. This article by Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf (Ecologic Institute) and Sebastian Oberthür (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) is available for download.

The Energiewende means a transition from the old, nuclear-and-coal based, to a sustainable and digitalized energy system. This is a complex endeavor: the number of actors involved increases and their functions overlap. While digital technologies bring automation and potential for relief, they are an ambivalent phenomenon: with no comprehensive laws on data protection, it is unclear what is going to happen to the tremendous amount of data collected by digital appliances. Besides, technologies like blockchain are often so energy-intensive that they eat up the amount of resources that they are trying to save. Therefore, political design must actively shape a digital and ecologically sustainable energy transition – it will not happen by itself.

Energy security – the uninterrupted supply of energy at reasonable prices, as defined by IEA – has both external and internal dynamics. It can be ensured through local adequacy, that is, abundant and varied forms of indigenous energy resources, but the countries that face local shortages, as in Bangladesh, depend on imports. Shafiqul Alam explains in his online article in the Dhaka Tribune how internal measures could attenuate reliance on external sources.

The use of the term "driving ban" can give the impression of a general and comprehensive ban on driving. In this sense, it means, rather, a ban on mobility. The term thus does not only suggest a banishment, but also an interference in the personal freedom of all drivers, not only of diesel drivers. "Traffic restrictions" is the more precise term with respect to the content. Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Head of International and European Governance, and Katharina Umpfenbach, Coordinator Energy of the Ecologic Institute, discuss this in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The article is available online.

As part of the EU H2020 RURECO project, Dr. Josselin Rouillard carried out a one-month research exchange with the University of Davis, California focusing on sustainable groundwater management in Europe, France and California. Seminars with academic staff at UC Davis and Stanford University were organised comparing European and Californian strategies for sustainable groundwater management. Workshops and meetings were organised with the State Water Resource Control Board and nine groundwater sustainable agencies across the state of California. The blogpost is linked in the article.

The ideal of economic growth goes back to the period of industrialisation, when development and growth meant almost the same thing: Progress. But what happens in a society where it is clear that resources are limited? Marius Hasenheit of Ecologic Institute and Viola Nordsieck discuss these questions in the discussion paper "Aspects of Group-Related Misanthropy in Nature and Environmental Protection". The discussion paper is available for download.

This study applies a methodological framework that assesses the personally experienced impact of coping strategies by local stakeholders on sustainability criteria.

Lago, M., Boteler, B., Rouillard, J., Abhold, K., Jähnig, S., Iglesias-Campos, A., Delacámara, G., Piet, G., Hein, T., Nogueira, A., Lillebø, A., Strosser, P., Robinson, L., De Wever, A., O'Higgins, T., Schlüter, M., Török, L., Reichert, P., van Ham, C., Villa, F. and Hugh, M. (2019). Introducing the H2020 AQUACROSS project: Knowledge, Assessment, and Management for AQUAtic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aCROSS EU policies. Science of The Total Environment, 652, pp.320-329.

This article summarizes the key insights of this project containing two major aspects: First, it presents a conceptual framework for the implementation of LDN at national level including a proposal for necessary steps and guiding questions. Second, it develops a concept for a new indicator to monitor LDN, which uses land use categories as a possible proxy indicator to differentiate likely impacts on soil.

In this article, the authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Linda Mederake, assess innovative climate governance in small-to-medium-sized structurally disadvantaged cities (SDCs). Considering their deeply ingrained severe economic and social problems, it would be reasonable to assume that SDCs act primarily as climate laggards or at best as followers. However, novel empirical findings show that SDCs are capable of acting as climate pioneers. Different types and styles of climate leadership and pioneership and how they operate within multi-level and polycentric governance structures are identified and assessed. SDCs seem relatively readily willing to adopt transformational climate pioneership styles to create 'green' jobs, for example, in the offshore wind energy sector and with the aim of improving their poor external image.

The volume "Sites of Remembering: Landscapes, Lessons, Policies" of the Rachel Carson Centres' journal called "Perspectives" bridges the gap between humanities research and public policy. It uses a diverse selection of examples from worldwide memory studies to illuminate how society can employ lessons from the past in building resilience to ecological and humanitarian disasters. Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute is a co-author. The volume is available for download.

The widespread use of the term "climate change" is an important framing victory for those who are not interested in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as required by the Paris Agreement. With this framing, it is no wonder that neither citizens nor policy reduce emissions sufficiently. that neither is what Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Head of International and European Governance at Ecologic Institute, writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. His article is available online.

Meyer-Ohlendorf, Nils 2018: Europa in der Polarisierungsfalle. Befürworter der EU bescheren Salvini und Orbán einen strategischen Vorteil. Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft. [online] Available at: https://www.ipg-journal.de

Hydropower now accounts for 18% of electricity generated across Europe and 70% of renewable energy. Most of Europe's hydropower plants have been in operation for several decades. They are therefore about to be renovated, modernized and expanded. Only recently has the emphasis been placed on the protection of fish. European countries must adhere to the Water Framework Directive, which calls for environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and economically viable hydropower. The FIThydro project deals with this topic and wrote an article. Eleftheria Kampa from Ecologic Institute contributed to this article. It is available for download.

Plastic in the environment is a global problem that is particularly visible in a growing volume of plastic waste in the sea. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has set up a major research focus to investigate the extent of the problem in more detail and to develop approaches to reducing it. Until 2021, a total of 18 joint projects with more than 100 institutions from science, industry, and practice will be funded with 35 million euros in one of the world's largest research programmes on plastics to date. In addition to the main areas of work, the authors of the Ecologic Institute examines the research projects in more detail.