Citizen assemblies are in high demand – also in the EU. The European Commission wants citizen assemblies to draft future recommendations for key EU legislative projects. The European Parliament is pushing in the same direction. It seems likely that citizen assemblies will become an integral part of the EU decision-making. Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf asks if this is a good idea and what lessons can be learned from the EU Citizen Assemblies?

Social concerns around introducing a carbon price for transport and heating fuels (ETS2) are legitimate. But the EU Parliament overshot the mark in its aspiration to cushion households, which becomes apparent in its request for changes to the Social Climate Fund (SCF), write Michael Pahle, Nils aus dem Moore and Benjamin Görlach in their article for EURACTIV.

Not democratically elected, but popular: Citizen councils can strengthen public participation in the EU, but they must not be overrated. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses in the IPG Journal how citizen councils can be involved in EU decision-making in the future.

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament adopted its reform proposals for the EU Climate Action Regulation last Monday. These contain important improvements, but overall they are disappointing, says Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in the Tagesspiegel.

This paper presents the results of a rapid review of the literature on gender and coastal climate adaptation conducted for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6). The findings highlight the lack of data on gender as a social dimension of adaptation and the gaps in current indicators for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal for gender (SDG5). The paper emphasises the need for gender-disaggregated data on coastal adaptation efforts to fully capture both positive and negative gender dimensions of climate adaptation.

This article emphasizes the significant role of culture in shaping and utilizing climate services, which are crucial for achieving climate resilience and sustainable development in various regions. By incorporating cultural perspectives, the development of climate services can be tailored to meet the specific needs and values of local communities, enhancing their effectiveness and relevance.

The German Federal Constitutional Court's decision of March 2021 declared the Climate Change Act partially unconstitutional because it did not sufficiently protect fundamental rights. While the Court upheld the Act's objective of climate neutrality by 2050 and emission budgets until 2030, it held that the Climate Change Act violated fundamental rights for the time after 2030: The specific emissions budgets until 2030 entailed that strict measures would likely be required after 2030 in order to achieve climate neutrality. The Climate Change Act failed to sufficiently address in advance how this would affect individual freedoms. Dr. Ralph Bodle and Dr. Stephan Sina provide an overview of the main findings of the decision as well as the ensuing amendments to the Climate Change Act, which were passed within just a few months after the decision and are subject to new constitutional challenges.

The emission of plastics into the environment is growing worldwide. Since existing regulations are not sufficient to curb the problem, the ever-increasing plastic production and use must be reduced overall. A systemic approach is needed that holds all actors responsible who produce, use, recycle, dispose and trade in plastic products and packaging. Policymakers must drive forward the necessary paradigm shift and facilitate a debate on sufficiency in society as a whole.

In an integrated global economy, trade policy and climate policy are closely intertwined. In this paper, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Michael Jakob adopts an interdisciplinary approach to provide an overview of the key debates in economics, political science, and legal studies related to globalization and climate change. He identifies a number of emerging issues that deserve increased attention in future research in this direction.

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to take a heavy toll, the heads of state and government gathering in Versailles today and tomorrow (10-11 March 2022) will need to take actions that support Ukraine while also shoring up the bloc's own strategic autonomy from Moscow. The European Green Deal will be crucial for the success of this strategy. This op-ed, which is available online, explains why.

This introductory overview of international soil governance first outlines essential features of international governance by Dr. Ralph Bodle. At the international level, there is no overarching central or superior authority. Rules and other measures normally do not have direct effect at national level; they need to be implemented by their addressees. In contrast to other environmental topics, states have for a long time been reluctant to engage in soil governance at the international level. As a result, international soil governance is piecemeal and spread over parts of different institutions and processes, each of which has limitations. The Sustainable Development Goal “land degradation neutrality” on its own is not a comprehensive soil policy, but its forward-looking planning element in particular is a useful starting point for guiding national policies and further work. While binding rules are not an end in itself, new treaty obligations relating to soil protection could be useful to address gaps and shortcomings in current governance and focus international commitments. Climate change provides an opportunity to increase soil protection e.g. through the climate regime, but there are also risks if soil protection was pursued solely from a climate perspective.

The article reflects on the 59th Tutzing Symposion entitled "Polymers for a better life and circular economy" that took place as an online event in October 2021. Based on the presentations at the symposium, the contribution provides an overview of current debates on the circular plastics economy, as well as insights into existing political regulations, present challenges, and possible future developments with regard to this major societal project.

This article explores how (in)coherence in policies and responsibilities affects coordination at process and outcome level. It presents a rigorous comparative study of cross-sectoral coordination in six river basins worldwide. The authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Dr. Ulf Stein, observe that coherence can favor coordination at the process level, but it remains difficult to establish causality. Coherence of policies and responsibilities does not change the relationship between process-level and outcome-level coordination.

One of the top priorities of the German government is the establishment of a "climate club". However, this would be inadequate if it focused on border compensation. Rather, cooperative approaches are essential. In this opinion piece, Clara Brandi and Dr. Michael Jakob of Ecologic Institute weigh the problems and possibilities of designing a climate club.

Prof. Michael Mehling (Deputy Director, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR)), and Dr. Camilla Bausch (Director, Ecologic Institute) were invited to contribute to the inaugural issue of the new journal "Klima und Recht" (Climate and Law). In their contribution, Mehling and Bausch provide an overview of the results of the Glasgow Climate Summit, covering not only formal decisions but also key initiatives and declarations announced at the Summit.