"Sort of best friends?" was the title of a conference which took place on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the IÖW and VÖW on 2 November 2015. The Ecological Research Network (Ecornet) – of which Ecologic Institute is a member – along with the civil society players Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Brot für die Welt and Zivilgesellschaftliche Plattform Forschungswende hosted the event.

In order to support businesses in improving their resource efficiency, EU Member States use a variety of policy measures. This infographic illustrates the scope of application of ten selected policy measures taken by 28 EU countries. It shows the major differences in the extent of implementation between the Member States, as well as between the individual measures. The infographic was created for the final report of the project "A Framework for Member States to Support Business in Improving its Resource Efficiency".

An innovative 'Toolbox', aimed to help farmers achieve a good balance between crop productivity, soil health and soil carbon storage, has been developed as a result of a major EU research project called SmartSOIL. The SmartSOIL toolbox is an interactive platform which will show advisers and farmers potential changes in yield and soil organic carbon content which can result from implementing these practices. The toolbox is available online.

The German Federal Agency of Environment (UBA) published a synthesis report in October 2015. The report summarises major findings of the research and discussions undertaken in the project "Global Land Use and Sustainability (GLOBALANDS)", in which the Ecologic Institute played a major role. The synthesis report describes future pathways towards global sustainable land use and presents recommendations for German policy. The report ends with remaining questions, which need further investigation and discussion. It is available for download.

The present briefing provides an overview of the history of the plant, and of the legal measures taken to address the company's failure to comply with applicable environmental legislation, as well as the environmental, economic and health impacts of the lack of environmental compliance. The briefing is available for download.

Beça, Pedro; Rui Santos, Marius Hasenheit 2015: Brief on Policy Recommendations for Research. NETGREEN deliverable 4.4.

This document sets out the overarching communication strategy of REFRESH. It introduces the dissemination-related objectives of REFRESH, identifies relevant target groups, describes the different communication instruments of REFRESH and explains the role of the consortium partners in dissemination.

This policy brief summarises the insights conducted under the CECILIA2050 project on the international dimensions of EU climate policy. The aims of the research were to understand the economic and political interactions between EU policies and the rest of the world, assess the effectiveness of these measures and determine the legal and political feasibility of policy responses in regard to diminishing the risk of carbon leakage.

On 29 and 30 October 2015, the Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FFCUL) and Ecologic Institute, Berlin, convened a training course in Palmela (Portugal) on behalf of the BASE project. Designed for 16 carefully selected adaptation practitioners from all over Europe, the course provided a curriculum dedicated to the implementation of climate change adaptation projects, and offered illustration through hands-on examples, practical experience and case studies, heavily based on the results obtained from the BASE project. The presentation slides are available for download.

The third webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on 28 October 2015 and featured a discussion on the topic "EU Climate Policy for 2030: why are we talking about governance?" moderated by Matthias Duwe (Head, Climate at Ecologic Institute). The webinar featured two main speakers. The audio recording is available online.

We are excited to announce the third webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series, which will feature a discussion on the topic: "EU climate policy for 2030: why are we talking about governance?". The webinar will take place on Wednesday, 28 October from 11:00-12:00 CET and will feature guest speakers Jonathan Gaventa (E3G) and Katharina Umpfenbach (Ecologic Institute).

With this project, the Ecologic Institute supports the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) at the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety with the further development of the emission trading scheme of the European Union (EU ETS), for the period after 2020. The project focuses especially on the design of the carbon leakage guidelines within the fourth trading period (2020–2030) and beyond. It is the goal of the project to shed new light on the carbon leakage discussion, to assess the validity of current assumptions and to discuss potential design options.

On behalf of the German Embassy in Cairo and the Federal Foreign Office Ecologic Institute contributes to the "Climate Finance Workshop" in Cairo. The "Climate Finance Workshop" is a part of the "Cairo Climate Talks" programme initiated 2011 by the German Embassy in Cairo to build on the strong partnership between Egypt and Germany in the fields of energy and environment.

In the last few years, regulation of European financial markets has evolved – primarily through the adoption of the second EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and further EU Directives and Regulations, including those on market abuse and money laundering. While the carbon market is not their primary target, these new developments nonetheless have an impact on the European trade of emissions allowances within the framework of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). In the context of this project, Ecologic Institute and its partners, FutureCamp and Professor Weber of the University of Zürich, investigates how the regulation of the financial market has developed recently, how these changes influence market access for actors in the carbon market and how the behavior of plant operators may change – or have changed already – in reaction to the new legal guidelines.

The fourth expert workshop of the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond" dealt with the topic "Closing the post-Paris ambition gap: enhancing ambition before 2020 and the role of climate action pioneers." The event took place on 27 October 2015 in Berlin.