As part of the project "Environmental Guidelines of German Arctic Policy" funded by the Federal Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute hosted the expert workshop "Environmental protection of the High North – How to protect the Arctic from afar?" on 24 October 2018 in Berlin. The aim of the workshop was to facilitate exchange and discussion on how observers of the Arctic Council can engage strategically and practically in the protection of the Arctic environment. The exchange with states active in the High North, indigenous communities, businesses, research and civil society produced solutions for a sustainable development in the Arctic that allows for the reconciliation of a wide spectrum of interests in the region. The focus was on climate change and air pollution control, shipping in the Arctic and sustainable tourism in the region.

What does Germany have to do with the Arctic and what impact do Germans' daily decisions have on it? These and other questions were discussed on 22 October 2018 during Ecologic Institute's evening event on Germany's Arctic activities, part of a project for the German Environment Agency (UBA). The evening brought a broader audience together with experts in a scientific setting and enabled exchange interaction with various German organisations at information booths. The evening’s opening event was the premiere of a short documentary film called "Footsteps in the Arctic," which explores to what extent Germans are responsible for the changes in the Arctic and what they can do.

Ecologic Institute's Arctic Summer College, supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, hosted a side event on sustainable development in the Arctic that welcomed over 50 participants in its first session during the Arctic Circle Assembly on 20 October 2018. A recording of the side event is available online.

The Working Group ECOSTAT of the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) held a workshop on classification on 29-30 May 2018 in Tallinn. The aim of this workshop with respect to hydromorphology was to facilitate a better common understanding on the use of hydromorphological quality elements for the overall assessment of ecological status and potential. This is part of a wider work item on classification in the ECOSTAT work programme focusing on the linkage between supporting and biological quality elements (BQEs). The Workshop Summary Report presents the main discussions that occurred during this meeting and is available for download.

The aim of the project was to develop a study "Ocean as a Global Commons: International Governance and the Role of Germany" at the request of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) as part of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (Wissenschaftsplattform Nachhaltigkeit 2030). The study provides an overview of the different governance mechanisms in regard to the Global Commons "Oceans" area.

The Think 2030 conference has launched a new sustainability platform, which aims to inform a science-based agenda for European environmental policy beyond 2020 and propose solutions to Europe's most pressing sustainability issues. Ecologic Institute's Matthias Duwe co-authored a paper on long-term climate planning in the EU together with Lola Vallejo (IDDRI), which was discussed during a dedicated session. A summary of the paper is available.

Our greenhouse gases are partly responsible for climate change. The ice in the Arctic is melting and native animals like the polar bear are losing their habitat. But where should they go? This postcard is part of a series of three postcards that provide information on how the daily consumption of energy and raw materials in Germany can affect the Arctic. The postcards were developed by Ecologic Institute for the Federal Environment Agency within the project "Environmental Guidelines for a German Arctic Policy".

Every day we (unconsciously) use raw materials that are also mined in the Arctic. These are not only found in smartphones. The extraction of raw materials has a high impact on the environment. Those who use their devices for longer, conserve resources and support the preservation of the Arctic.

There are many promising ways in which the next EU budget could help EU Member States achieve their climate and energy targets. Explicitly targeting EU public spending towards climate could send a signal to other investors, creating a shift in financial flows. Existing legislative proposals the door already ajar, but concrete improvements are needed to push it open, analysis by Ecologic Institute shows.

In this flyer, the Federal Environment Agency summarises the essential information on the focal points of the environmental guidelines for a German Arctic policy. Ecologic Institute was responsible for creating the flyer based on the Federal Environment Agency's design.

Ecologic Institute is working with Öko-Institut and Prof. Dr. Klinski on a project for the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) relating to constitutional, European law and state aid issues for the development of the European Emission Trading Directive. Ecologic Institute's contribution focusses on the interactions of the ETS Directive and further EU legislative acts with a potential Federal Climate Change Act.

In the first BSEC (Berlin Seminar on Energy and Climate) after the summer break, possible functions and roles of a German climate protection law for the transformation in sectors with the highest emissions will be presented and discussed. Matthias Duwe, from Ecologic Institute, will talk about the design and effectiveness of climate change legislation in international comparison. The seminar will take place on 15 October 2018 in Berlin.

Climate and resource policy are important fields of action at international and national level. In contrast to climate protection, there is no international policy regime for resource conservation and its societal relevance appears lower than for climate protection. However, scientific findings and political debates are increasingly pointing out that climate protection and resource conservation must be considered together, since interactions can offer both synergies and trade-offs. For example, saving primary raw material use by fostering recycling could help reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions require large quantities of metallic and mineral raw materials whose extraction and production are associated with environmental impacts (e.g., land consumption and environmental pollution due to the extraction of mineral resources as well as energy-intensive processing) and which are partly considered as critical raw materials. Hence, in the context of the nexus of resource conservation and greenhouse gas neutrality, positive and negative effects on resource consumption and energy consumption are equally conceivable.

On 10 and 11 October 2018, the AQUACROSS Final Conference on "Ecosystem-Based Management for the Protection of Aquatic Biodiversity – Practice and Lessons Learnt" took place in Brussels. AQUACROSS project team members presented different tools and results regarding aquatic biodiversity protection developed during the project. Conference participants from 21 countries received the eight AQUACROSS Case Studies and the Case Study Gallery with posters, photos and information material with particular interest. The presentations held during the conference are now available on the AQUACROSS project conference website.