McFarland, Keighley and Julia M. Wittmayer 2017: Hitting a policy wall. The transformative potential and limitations of community pick-up point schemes. In: Backhaus, Julia et. al. (eds.): Social Innovation and Sustainable Consumption. Research and Action for Societal Transformation. Routledge: London.

At the time of their adoptions, the Water Framework Directive and later on the Floods Directive introduced many new concepts in governance, economic analysis and technical challenges for a sustainable and integrated water resources management. A lot of effort has been put into the development of River Basin Management Plans by Member States and knowledge of water status has considerably improved. Nevertheless, important differences in implementation level across the EU continue to exist and some member states or basins authorities still face difficulties in particular technical areas, which could be discussed with experts from other Member States to find alternative approaches or suggestions for improvement.

The Energy Future Exchange (EFEX) is a two-year program of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the Ecologic Institute in Berlin and the Ecologic Institute in the US, co-funded by a grant of the European Union to foster the transatlantic civil-society dialogue on Energy in the context of climate change.

Engaging the public on science and sustainable consumption: the how-to guide published in the pilot report "A Taste of the Future of the Seas" explains how to organize fun and impactful popular-scientific events, with a special focus on sustainable food. The guide, published by Ecologic Institute, is part of the Science Year 2016*17 – Seas and Oceans and is available for download in German.

This report addresses the design and the implementation of two financial instruments which can help increase the financial resources available for water resources management: "water charges" and "payments for ecosystem services". Both instruments involve a greater participation of water users or beneficiaries in covering the costs associated with the provision of the water resources management service. The report is available for download in English and Spanish.

The project "Elaborating strategies and contributions to implement SDG12 (responsible consumption and production) on the national level for Germany" aims at setting up a systematic monitoring for implementing SDG12 on the national level for Germany and thus support the German Environment Ministry as the leading department in developing positions for national and international discussions.

This side event presents analysis on both long-term climate policy scenario development as well as the respective governance frameworks and discuss it with practitioners involved. Furthermore, case studies from around the world are showcased.

Ecologic Institute launched an online collaboration facility that helped climate innovators bring new solutions to market: the BRIGAID Market Analysis Framework (MAF+). By helping to identify actual market needs for solutions addressing droughts, floods, and extreme weather events, MAF+ improved innovators' capacities to recognize business opportunities in the field of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This work was carried out within the BRIGAID project, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme of the EU.

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.

13 case studies from different parts of the world are presented in this report as examples for policy-makers and stakeholders interested in developing long-term climate policy frameworks that are compatible with the Paris Agreement.

Long-term climate strategies are an important instrument to help policy-makers and relevant stakeholders to establish a direction towards a climate-friendly future. The Paris Agreement asks all countries to establish such strategies – and EU Member States will soon be committed under EU law to produce them by 2020 at the latest. Not all EU countries have tried to establish plans that long into the future (up to 2050 and beyond) and the existing ones differ in scope and specificity. There is thus a need for exchange of the current experience and a sharing of best practice – including improving the understanding of the underlying modelling and scenario work. The Climate Recon 2050 project brings together policymakers from EU Member States, as well technical experts and climate modellers in two parallel fora to provide a space for exactly such a dialogue.

The MinFuture website provides an overview of the project objectives, structure and partners as well as events and news related to relevant issues of the project. Furthermore, project outputs such as deliverables, policy briefs and publications are regularly promoted on the website. Ecologic Institute is responsible for the concept, design and programming.

The EU has been going through a series of crises – from the Eurozone crisis and Brexit to controversy around migration, from external threats to the rise of Eurosceptic and nationalistic parties in some Member States. In response, the EU has embarked on an extensive process to reform itself. Against this backdrop, the Ecologic Institute organises workshops on EU reform and its links to climate and energy policies. Workshops take place in Tallinn, Sofia and Bucharest - in the context of the Estonian, Bulgarian and Romanian EU Presidency. A final conference in Berlin will conclude the project in spring 2019. The Ecologic Institute will present a study on the interlinkages between EU reform and climate and energy policy at the final conference.

Ecologic Institute analysed the existing European rules for climate action. Although comprehensive and detailed, they do not include many features of national and regional climate laws, such as legally binding reduction targets, emission budgets, or independent institutions. However, these features contribute significantly to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The detailed project report is available for download.