On 13 December 2017 the China Emissions Exchange and the European Commission hosted a conference in Shenzhen on emissions trading in China and the EU. The conference was organized by Ecologic Institute. The event brought together experts from the world's largest emissions trading scheme, the EU ETS, and China's future major emissions trading scheme. The conference took stock of what emissions trading in the EU and China have achieved so far and what lessons can be drawn from it. Moreover, the event dealt with how emissions trading can contribute to mastering future climate policy challenges. The presentation slides are available online.

The fruits of Yasmine Ostendorf's Writer-in-Residence term at Ecologic Institute were presented at a festive December evening at Zabriskie Bookshop. The publication "Creative Environment – A guide to art and sustainability initiatives in Berlin" was rolled out to a vibrant group of scientists, artists, curators and the general public. The publication is available online and in hard copy.

In December 2017 the publication "Creative Environment – a guide to art and sustainability initiatives in Berlin" was published by Ecologic Institute. The guide is the result of Ecologic Institute's inaugural Writer-in-Residence program. Curator Yasmine Ostendorf spent two months conducting interviews and researching initiatives in Berlin that are working in the shared spaces between art and sustainability.

Shortly before Christmas 2017, decision makers from the Midwest in the USA and Canada took the opportunity to come to Germany and get a feel for the many different facets and recent developments of German energy policy. The group consisted of US representatives from Illinois, Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as Canadian members of the legislative assembly from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. During the tour, participants were able to meet and engage with representatives from federal ministries and agencies, municipalities, the German parliament, think tanks, as well as businesses and embassies.

On 8 December 2017, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented a comparative overview of climate change laws at state level in Germany at a workshop on the further development of the Climate Change Act for Baden-Württemberg. He focused on common features and differences in the existing climate change acts, and highlighted elements of interest for the amendment of the Climate Change Act for Baden-Württemberg.

Stelljes, N., McGlade, K., Martinez, G., BONUS SOILS2SEA Deliverable 6.4. Results from stakeholder workshops on governance concepts. Ecologic Institute, Berlin, December 2017, www.soils2sea.eu

Ecologic Institute analysed how three key elements of the Paris Agreement are being taken up in the EU: the long-term objectives, the 5-year pledge & review process and the planning instrument "long-term strategies".

Lignite and hard coal is still Germany's most important energy source for power generation. Yet, Germany's climate policy goals can only be achieved if coal-firing decreases and is phased out completely in the long-term. To date, the "when and how" of this coal exit remains unclear. As a basis for the decision-making processes in the next legislative period, Ecologic Institute is working together with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and the Wuppertal Institute (WI) to develop a reader that clearly summarises the scientific facts and controversies surrounding the coal exit.

On 4 December 2017, Matthias Duwe presented insights on national climate laws to inform Spanish debate gained from a joint research effort on long-term climate frameworks at a roundtable discussion organized by the renowned thing tank Elcano Royal Institute. He joined Valvanera Ulargui, head of the Spanish Climate Change Office at the national Environment Ministry and Jesús Fidel González Rouco from the Geosciences Institute (IGEO) of the Complutense University of Madrid and a contributor to the IPCC.

On 4 December 2017, at the end of Estonia's EU presidency, a high-level workshop discussed Estonian views on the EU reform process, and the role of climate and energy policies in it. This event is part of a series of workshops on EU reform and its links to climate and energy policies. A summary of the workshop is available.

Annually since 2012, the Policy Center for the New South, previously known as OCP Policy Center, holds its Atlantic Dialogues conference in Morocco. In 2017, it established the Atlantic Dialogues Advisory Board (AD-AB). R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder and Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute, was appointed and now serves on the Atlantic Dialogues Advisory Board.

As part of the visual identity for project "Global Material Flows and Demand-supply Forecasting for Mineral Strategies" (MinFuture), Ecologic Institute designed promotional flyers in small postcard format. The postcards summarize general objectives and aims of the project, are styled according to the project style-guides and draw the reader's attention to facts about mineral usage. The three postcards also contain contact information and a QR-code directing to the project website.

As part of the visual identity for project "Global Material Flows and Demand-supply Forecasting for Mineral Strategies" (MinFuture), Ecologic Institute designed promotional flyers in small postcard format. The postcards summarize general objectives and aims of the project, are styled according to the project style-guides and draw the reader's attention to facts about mineral usage. The three postcards also contain contact information and a QR-code directing to the project website.

In the latest Work Programme 2016-2018 of the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Water Directors of European countries agreed to set up a specific Ad-hoc Task Group (ATG) on best practice and guidance to deal with hydromorphology. In this context, one of the core activities of the Working Group (WG) ECOSTAT of the WFD CIS has been to compare the ecological quality expected by different countries for water bodies impacted by water storage.

The COACCH project (CO-designing the Assessment of Climate CHange costs) is an EU funded Horizon 2020 project assessing the economic costs of climate change and climate actions. The project is coordinated by the Euro Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC) in Italy and involves a consortium of 14 leading climate research institutes from countries across Europe.