Fertile soils are an indispensable resource for agriculture and the Bioeconomy as a whole. Subsoils contain a major part of the nutrients essential for plants, a resource potential that has thus far not yet been fully understood nor used. In order to harness this untapped potential, the Soil³ project examines the subsoil processes and application of alternative subsoil management measures. The Ecologic Institute will conduct research on the costs, benefits and social acceptance of these measures.

The Rostock Energy Alliance (Energiebündnis Rostock) was founded in April 2011 by the City of Rostock and nine other municipal stakeholders from sectors such as public transport, housing and waste and water management. Their united goal is a locally based energy supply fully sourced from renewables. While CO2 emissions should be reduced, quality of life should not. The Alliance meets face-to-face biannually to exchange knowledge and experience, as well as to seek synergies for various constituent activities. The Alliance aims to reduce the annual CO2 emission per person to 2.5t or less by 2030. Compared to 2010, this is equal to a 2% reduction per year. To date (2015), the Energy Alliance supported the city in the creation of an energy transition concept and the current implementation of associated measures, in addition to the foundation of an energy cooperative.

By linking different ETS, regulators create interdependence: decisions taken in one system have effects on the linked systems. Since ETS are evolving over time, there is a need for joint governance structures, to ensure compatibility of the linked systems, to avoid unwanted inferences, and to prepare for eventual disputes. In this report for the German Emissions Trading Authority, Benjamin Görlach, Michael Mehling and Ennid Roberts have looked into possible solutions for these challenges. The report is available for download.

This report aims at investigating the participation process in climate change adaptation for 22 European BASE case studies. A description of participatory methods and a further analysis of 9 BASE case studies where there has been a deliberative adaptation process present are given. Based on the results presented, a set of recommendations to policy-makers and practitioners are given. The output from D5.3 will lead up to D5.5, in which a more detailed analytical description of the framework will be given and a meta-analysis of the empirical contents will be delivered.

On 30 September 2015, the conference "SmartSOIL: sustainable soil management aimed at reducing threats to soils under climate change" took place in Brussels. The conference concluded the 4-year research project SmartSOIL funded by the 7th Framework Programme.

A group of 10 leading journalists came to Germany from 27 September to 3 October 2015 in order to explore and discuss German climate and energy policy. Participants were able to speak with representatives from ministries, parliament, think tanks and businesses in Berlin, Freiburg and Stuttgart.

At the 10th German Climate Conference, Dr. Grit Martinez (Ecologic Institute) gave an overview of how the consequences of climate change have been addressed by human society during the past decades. Meanwhile, there is a prevailing consensus that both deep-rooted climate change mitigation efforts and adaptation measures are necessary to prevent a climatic change with unmanageable consequences. The presentation is available for download.

The first study tour of the 2015-2016 ELEEP Fellowship Class took place from 21 until 25 September 2015. On the study tour 15 ELEEP members visited Denmark and Germany to explore both opportunities and challenges of the European Energy Transition.

On 21 September 2015, Dr. Eleftheria Kampa, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a lecture on EU water and river basin management policy at the Potsdam Summer School on Facing Natural Hazards (14 - 23 September 2015). The presentation slides are available for download.

The second webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 from 16:00 until 17:00 CEST. The webinar featured a discussion on the topic: "Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030" feature guest speakers Anja Kollmuss (CAN Europe) and Andrei Marcu (CEPS). The audio recording is available for download.

The second webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 from 16:00 until 17:00 CEST. The webinar featured a discussion on the topic: "Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030" feature guest speakers Anja Kollmuss (CAN Europe) and Andrei Marcu (CEPS).

On 15 September 2015, Dr. Ana Frelih-Larsen, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation at the workshop "Agriculture and LULUCF in 2030 EU Climate and Energy Framework: State of the art and best practice for climate action in the agriculture and forestry sectors". The presentation slides are available for download.

In the "Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations," a group of high-level lawyers and philosophers addresses obligations of States and enterprises to avert the critical level of climate change – irrespective of already existing obligations resulting from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or a (potential) follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The group argues that existing legal sources including human rights law, environmental law and tort law oblige states to take measures leading to drastic emissions reductions that ensure that the global temperature increase does not exceed pre-industrial temperatures by more than 2°C.

Marius Hasenheit, Junior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, wrote an article about the interactive search engine "measuring-progress.eu" for Green Economy Indictors for the online magazine RESET. To draw interest of people who are not often dealing with Green Economy Indicators, on this topic, he described the project in a vivid and way. In this context he depicted the relevance of indicators in most of the fields of environmental policy and furthermore invited the readers to try out the tool and provide feedback.

On 15 September 2015, the POLIMP project consortium will host its final expert workshop at Ecologic Institute in Berlin (Germany). The one day workshop will focus on low-carbon technology support policies in the EU, with special attention given to financing, public acceptance and emissions trading. Each of these will feature introductory input from the project, contrasted with an external policy expert perspective (from research, government and business) to start conversation among participants. The presentations and discussion will be augmented by the perspectives of up to 40 external experts working in research, government and business.