<p>The international "SustEcon Conference – The contribution of a sustainable economy to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals" took place on 25 and 26 September 2017 at the Freie Universität in Berlin. It was organised by the project NaWiKo, which coordinates 30 projects doing research on various topics linked to make the economy more sustainable.</p>&#13;

Green infrastructure (GI) and nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognised for their potential to contribute to a range of urban challenges and policy objectives. But, how can they be mainstreamed in practice and to what extent do current policy frame-works support their implementation? At the international conference on "Urban Green In-frastructure - Connecting People and Nature for Sustainable Cities", Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis and Sandra Naumann addressed these and other issues in targeted ses-sions. The conference, held in Malmö (Sweden) from 20 to 21 September 2017, was the final conference of the EU-funded GreenSurge project.

In their 2007 publication for the first issue of CCLR, Dr. Camilla Bausch, Director of Ecologic Institute, and Michael Mehling, Partner and Board Member of the Institute, took stock of progress with climate negotiations under the United Nations. Now, a decade later, they have revisited their assessment, tracing the tumultuous path of negotiations since 2007, and pointing to milestones in the journey, major achievements, as well as challenges that lie ahead.

For several years, the EU and China have cooperated on the design and implementation of carbon markets. Since 2018, the Ecologic Institute has become part of an international consortium led by ICF to deliver capacity building, training and joint research activities in support of a national Emissions Trading System for China. Ecologic experts Benjamin Görlach and Michael Mehling are part of a joint research team, comprised of European and Chinese experts, on the issue of market oversight rules, mechanisms and institutions for a national carbon market in China.

Lehmann, Karl, Melanie Kemper 2017: Website-Konzept für die Fördermaßnahme "Plastik in der Umwelt" www.bmbf-plastik.de. Berlin, unpublished.

Carbon and Climate Law Review (CCLR), a leading journal in the field of climate change law and policy, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Since its inception, colleagues from Ecologic Institute have contributed to its success as authors and members of the Editorial Board. To commemorate the anniversary, CCLR invited the authors of the inaugural issue to revisit their articles from a decade ago, and to reflect on them with the present perspective.

Kemper, Melanie, Georg Lamberty, Falko Wagner 2017: Informationsplattform Gewässerrenaturierung – Website Konzept, Berlin, September 2017, unpublished.

This book describes and analyses necessities for a more resource-efficient world. Authors across Europe, discuss solutions for a more sustainable use of natural resources and present good practice examples – such as repair services, digitalised construction projects and chemical leasing. The book addresses decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry, academia, civil society, and the media. Ecologic Institute's Mandy Hinzmann, Nick Evans, Terri Kafyeke, Stephen Bell and Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers took on the role of managing editors.

Ecologic Institute co-authored the RECREATE policy brief no. 7 on challenges and opportunities for national waste prevention programs. The authors state that the political framework needs to be more enabling and with further support for research and development targeted at measuring waste prevention and behavior change to unlock the potential of waste prevention. The RECREATE policy brief is available for download.

The EU is currently negotiating a comprehensive reorientation of energy and climate policy for the decade 2020-2030. Ecologic Institute drafted a strategy paper on how the next German federal government can shape the EU negotiations so as to create an EU electricity market regulation that is conducive to the German energy transition. Four central elements are identified: raising the ambition of energy targets and introducing long-term targets, developing effective oversight instruments to ensure compliance, adjusting the electricity market to the needs of wind and solar power, and initiating an exit strategy for coal firing. The paper is available for download.

'Protecting the natural environment is part of our responsibility for future generations' – this is the environmental policy guiding principle of the coalition agreement of Merkel's third cabinet. Has the Federal Government made environmental protection its guiding principle in the last four years? The answer: there is light and shadow. More light in international environmental policy and more shade at home. There have been some important achievements, but in the last four years none of the negative environmental trends have been stopped or even reversed. All in all far too little – as Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf finds in this opinion paper.

On 5 September 2017, Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a short presentation at the Federal Environment Agency's "Forum 2017 - Effectively reducing food waste - achieving more together". She reported on interim results from the European project REFRESH, which deals with the prevention of food waste and the recycling of surplus food.

Cross-border trade and the rules governing it impact consumers. Trade has benefits for consumers, such as access to goods not available domestically. Yet it also has certain risks, such as exposure to traded goods that may be dangerous. Against this background, consumer organisations on both sides of the Atlantic have been discussing what a consumer-friendly trade policy could look like. Christiane Gerstetter and Lena Donat of Ecologic Institute's Legal Team have compiled a study examining what complaint mechanisms for consumer organisations concerning international trade agreements could look like.

The illegal pollution of soil, water, and air, the illegal trade in protected species or the illegal shipment of waste abroad – these are different forms of environmental crime. Environmental crime has many negative consequences. Its environmental impacts range from the destruction of forests to the pollution of water, soil, and air and even to species extinction. Moreover, many types of environmental crime also affect human health, and organised forms of environmental crime undermine state structures and sustainable development.

In the framework of the scientific accompanying research (PlastikNet) of the research focus "Plastics in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions" (Plastik in der Umwelt – Quellen • Senken • Lösungsansätze) Ecologic Institute coordinated 20 joint research projects, which dealt with plastics in the environment funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).