Marine plastic pollution is a fast growing problem and it is not yet possible to estimate how severe the impacts currently are. Between 4.8 and 12.7 Mt of plastics ends up in the ocean each year, adding to the uncontrolled plastic waste already floating around the world’s seas. Despite many good initiatives and action plans, the world is about to lose the overall battle. There is an urgent need to vibrantly address the plastic pollution crisis of the oceans on a global level. This report by adelphi and Ecologic Institute provides suggestions in this regard. The report is available for download.

Combating plastic litter on land and in water is one of the major challenges of global environmental protection. As part of its plastics strategy, the EU will adopt a directive to restrict the use of several disposable plastic products and fishing gear. On behalf of the German Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute and s.Pro assessed legal questions and investigated appropriate measures to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility that the Directive in the Member States for selected product groups.

Senator Bernie Sanders invited some of the most prominent voices in America to the US Congress to discuss how to handle the increasing threat of climate change. Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute reflected on global trends in the field of energy, climate policy, and business.

Marine science is often still understood narrowly as a specialization of the natural sciences, to the exclusion of social sciences and humanities. Yet contributions from social sciences and humanities in marine research are necessary to explain what happens in the ocean and on the coasts. In order to help broaden perspectives on marine research, Ecologic Institute hosted a Strategy Group meeting to take stock of social sciences and humanities in marine research, and explore research needs, theoretical frameworks, and methodological approaches.

This final report presents the results of the research project "Internet of services and things and compliance with environmental standards of technical infrastructures – a concept study for Schwerin and its surroundings". The report is available for download.

At COP24 in Katowice (Poland), the final rulebook was set for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. While negotiations were ongoing, non-Party stakeholders presented and discussed diverse climate solutions at the side-events. The Ecologic Institute was represented at several side events and hosted two of them.

The annual climate change summit in 2018 takes place in the Polish city of Katowice. The task for negotiators is clear: agree a stringent rulebook for the Paris Agreement to ensure the global climate change treaty can work effectively. The summit, formally the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP24), will also see high-level events and provide a forum to discuss relevant developments in climate change policy from around the world. Ecologic Institute will attend the talks with a delegation of 12 colleagues, assisting with legal expertise on actual negotiation matters, but also presenting relevant research results to add to the global dialogue

For the Federal Environment Agency of Germany a consortium of Consideo, adelphi, Ecologic Institute, FEST and sociodimensions developed a quantitative simulation model to run scenarios on the potentials for a transition of society towards sustainability. The model explores the effects of a transition on the environment, climate change, use of resources, the economy, welfare, and happiness. The report is available for download.

This deliverable explores four key social and economic facets of NBS in the context of urban regeneration, namely: human health and well-being; sustainable economic prosperity; social cohesion and environmental justice; and citizen safety. It defines each concept and proposes indicators for measuring their impact in order to create a shared understanding and common approach within the CLEVER Cities project. Purely environmental aspects and indicators are beyond the scope of this document and are explored elsewhere in the project.

For the Federal Environment Agency of Germany a consortium of Consideo, adelphi, Ecologic Institute, FEST and sociodimensions developed a quantitative simulation model to run scenarios on the potentials for a transition of society towards sustainability. The model explores the effects of a transition on the environment, climate change, use of resources, the economy, welfare, and happiness. The publication is available online.

On 30 November 2018, Linda Mederake, Junior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, presented the Institute's activities in the field of plastics governance to a group of students from the International Degree Program Political Management (B.A.) at Hochschule Bremen, City University of Applied Sciences. The presentation took place in the context of an excursion of the study programme, during which the students got to know the "political Berlin" and exchanged views on several selected topics with various actors from research, politics, business and civil society.

The development of regional food strategies and cooperative approaches between urban and rural areas to reduce land take represent a suitable approach to the development of sustainable rural-urban linkages. Concrete policy recommendations can be found in the discussion paper of the Rural-Urban-Nexus project led by Ecologic Institute, which was discussed in the final workshop on 29 November 2018.

The 2016 REFIT Evaluation of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) showed that the national implementation is working to a much lower extent than could be expected and with a great variation between the Member States. Under the Multi-Annual Work Programme for the period 2017 to 2020, the European Commission promotes, among others, the availability of financial security across the EU. Supporting this objective, the project aims to enhance the evidence base in relation to the current situation in Member States.

Robust strategies for sustainable resource management depend on a solid understanding of the physical economy – the anthropogenic stocks and flows of matter and energy. MinFuture provides a framework for the description and monitoring of the physical economy using Material Flow Analysis (MFA). It distinguishes and visualises seven components, which are organised in a hierarchical structure (pyramid). This factsheet presents the framework and summarizes the project results.

This webinar presented findings from two projects on strategies to reach ambitiously low-emission levels in European industry. It looked at technological solutions, but also at strategies such as the reduction of demand and the increase rates of recycling. A recording of the webinar as well as the presentations are available online.