On 22 January 2018, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Philipp Voß presented the the report "The EU Emission Budget and its Implications for EU Climate Action" in Brussels. Beside the discussion of what a "fair" EU contribution according to the Paris Agreement is, they outlined different EU's greenhouse gas emission budgets scenarios. The presentations, agenda and list of participants are available for download.

Food Waste policy is affected by a large range of EU policies. EU food waste policy though lacks an integrated approach. Participants see opportunities to go beyond sectoral solutions through an integrated EU Food Policy. Workshop documentation is available for download.

<p>The aim of the conference is to present and discuss the results of the stakeholder engagement activities in BioSTEP and its value to the current policy discussions on the bioeconomy and the circular economy. BioSTEP has analysed in three policy workshops the participation processes that are necessary to build and strengthen the new value chains of the bioeconomy. The policy workshops discussed how bioeconomy strategies can be developed in a participatory way, ensuring that the change of economic value chains, necessary for a transition to a bioeconomy, is understood and supported by all stakeholders.</p>&#13;

<p>Engaging stakeholders in adaptation planning is widely considered to enhance the degree of acceptance and political relevance of environmental policy measures; yet significant room exists for improvement in the design and implementation of stakeholder participation in decision-making processes. A European Policy Event entitled "Implementing COP22 agreements: River basin adaptation planning through stakeholder engagement" was organized by Ecologic Institute within the EU-funded BeWater project to address this topic. The event's key messages and European policy recommendations are available for download.</p>

Since the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 countries worldwide have started processes towards the implementation of the goals and targets. Some of the targets are often already part of national strategies and instruments. Others are new and still need to be further specified to national circumstances – target 15.3 and the concept of "Land Degradation Neutrality" is one of these.

On 5 December 2016, World Soil Day, an EU Soil stakeholders' Conference took place in Brussels. The conference aimed at raising awareness about the importance of soils and the ecosystem services that they deliver, and to contribute to the implementation of the EU Soil Thematic Strategy. The proceedings are available for download.

Circular Economy promises a lower resource and energy use, new employment sector and economic growth. However, can an European circular economy fulfill these expectations and what environmental, social and economic impact does a transition to such an economy bear? The project CIRCULAR IMPACTS will answer these questions by collecting and assessing the existent knowledge base. On 27 October 2016, Lucas Porsch from Ecologic Institute presented the goals of the project. The slides are available for download.

Impact Assessment is an essential process in the world of policy-making. At the EU level, it is a requirement for every new policy project. UBA led a study to analyze the consideration for environmental impacts in these studies and whether there were lessons to learn for Germany. Ecologic Institute collaborated with Zurich-based INFRAS to scrutinize a sample of IAs published by the European Commission and analyze emerging trends. UBA and the consulting team then organized a workshop in Brussels to discuss their findings with representants of European Institutions (DG Environment, European Policy Research Service, Joint Research Center, etc.) and international IA experts. The presentation slides by Ecologic Institute and INFRAS are available for download.

The final conference of the project "Post-carbon cities of tomorrow" (POCACITO) led by Ecologic Institute, will take place on Friday, 21 October 2016 in Brussels. At the interactive conference we will present our experience in developing long-term strategies with stake-holders through visioning and backcasting workshops and other results of the project, such as a high level document or 'roadmap' to achieve livable post-carbon cities by 2050. Registration is now open!

From 4 to 15 July 2016, the 16th ICAP Summer School on Emissions Trading brought together experts from emerging economies and developing countries to learn about emissions trading as a tool for climate protection and to discuss the options and experiences of implementing such systems in developing countries. The Brussels course was the sixteenth of its kind since 2009. 28 mid-career professionals from eleven countries attended the course, which was facilitated by Benjamin Görlach and Matthias Duwe of the Ecologic Institute.

Concluding four years of interdisciplinary collaboration and research the BASE project brought together representatives working on climate adaptation policy at EU and Member State level, as well as local practitioners for an interactive day on climate change adaptation in Brussels. The main focus of the workshop was a series of policy observations that emerged from research in the BASE project. As a result another policy recommendation was developed which is available for download.

The EU research project "Bottom-Up Climate Adaptation Strategies for a Sustainable Europe" (BASE) recently announced the "Interactive Policy Workshop: Implementing the EU Adaptation Strategy - Practical insights and policy recommendations" to be held in Brussels (Belgium) on 9 June 2016. The aim of this workshop is to bring together stakeholders to share experiences of adaptation to climate change in policy and practice from across Europe. Stakeholder inputs will shape a series of recommendations that will be fed into the review of the EU Adaptation Strategy in 2017. Participation in this interactive workshop is free of charge. Please register now!

On 21 April 2016, the final conference of the EU-FP7 funded project “POLIMP” took place in Brussels. How can climate policies be designed, what impacts do they have and what other options are there? These are important questions to stakeholders and policy-makers. The project POLIMP aims at making answers to these issues more easily accessible and understandable. To this end, POLIMP examines knowledge gaps for different policy and decision making levels and covers these with the help of existing research results.

On 19 April 2016, Stephan Sina and Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellows at Ecologic Institute, presented a study on wildlife crime to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) of the European Parliament in Brussels. The study was compiled by a consortium lead by Ecologic Institute and published recently on the European Parliament's website. The presentation is available for download.

The final conference of the EU-funded research project "European Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) took place on 17 and 18 February 2016 in Brussels. More than 100 participants attended the conference - including representatives of EU institutions, national environmental authorities, police, civil society as well as academic experts on the topic from the EU and beyond. &#13;