On 20 May 2015, the European Environment Agency (EEA) released its State of Nature in the EU technical report, representing the EU's most comprehensive assessment to date of the status and trends of the EU's birds, habitats and non-bird species. The report is accompanied by a summary report and a brochure released by the European Commission's Directorate-General (DG) for Environment that highlight the technical report's key policy messages. Ecologic Institute contributed to each of the technical report's chapters as part of the EEA's European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC-BD) and is one of the report's lead authors. The report is available for download.

Ecologic Institute provides legal counsel to support the reform of the regulatory mechanism of the Trust Fund Adminsitrative Agreement by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. By providing scientific studies, advisory papers and expert assessments on the reform of the development policy Trust Fund of the World Bank the project is continuously assisting the reform process.

Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, prepared a discussion paper on "The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its relevance for global sustainable land use" as part of the GLOBALANDS project. The paper is available for download.

Through which global political approaches can a (more) sustainable land use be reached? Over the last four years, the GLOBALANDS project team has attempted to answer this primary research question. On 19 May 2015, the final conference of the project took place at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the project results related to global governance of urban-rural relations. All presentations are available on the GLOBALANDS website.

As part of its long-standing cooperation with Duke University, the Ecologic Institute implemented a course on Germany's energy transition (Energiewende), offered to Duke students as part of the Duke in Berlin Summer Program.

As part of the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2015, Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute chaired the session, "Safeguarding our Shores: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Coastal Climate Change Adaptation in Europe and the United States." During the session, the origins and meanings of flood protection programs, adaptation measures and strategies in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and the US were discussed. The presentations are available for download.

The ECCA 2015 covered a range of issues related to climate adaptation under the theme, "Integrating climate adaptation action in science, policy, practice, and business." The three-day conference took place from 12 to 14 May 2015 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference also featured a poster commercial, as well as three State of Green Tours to see innovative, local adaptation activities in action.

As part of the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2015, Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute chaired the session, "Safeguarding our Shores: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Coastal Climate Change Adaptation in Europe and the United States." During the session, which took place at the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA), the origins and meanings of flood protection programs, adaptation measures and strategies in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and the US were discussed. Dr. Nico Stelljes provided a presentation about local adaptation strategies. The presentation is available for download.

The European Climate Change Adaptation Conference – ECCA 2015 – shall take place from 12-14 May 2015 at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen. It is an initiative of a number of major European research projects and other stakeholders, organised on behalf of the EU Commission. Ecologic Institute co-ordinates the Scientific Programme Committee in charge of the development of the ECCA programme.

The provisional program of the second biennial European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA 2015) is available online. The ECCA 2015 will cover a range of issues related to climate adaptation under the theme, "Integrating climate adaptation action in science, policy, practice and business." The three-day conference will take place from 12 to 14 May 2015 in Copenhagen (Denmark).

Policy makers and environmental groups worldwide are scrambling to prepare for the adoption of a new international climate agreement at the Paris 2015 climate summit in December. However, the very specific language of the UN negotiations and the technical complexity of climate science are not readily understood by the average citizen. The nine-day training course, organized by Ecologic Institute, will include instructive training workshops on a diverse array of topics such as: "The Science of Climate Change" and "UNFCCC: How does a COP work?" All courses are designed to meet the professional needs of journalists and led by a team of experts in climate science and policy.

'One size fits it all' does not apply when it comes to the right indicators for policymaking. The NETGREEN consortium published its interactive tool which collects green economy indicators in addition to helping users navigate through them. This tool incorporated the most important indicators and useful information about each of them. Additionally, an interpretation aid and information about related indicators were provided. By doing, this, the web application provided guidance to policymakers and researchers who want to use and further develop indicators and tools in the field.

To ensure that the EU meets or potentially overachieves its 2030 energy and climate targets and embarks on a decarbonisation trajectory that is consistent its 2050 objective, an effective and robust governance system is of key importance. Given the diversity of interests among EU Member States, there is a need for innovative thinking on how to design effective approaches that can secure consent in the EU policy-making process.
 To contribute to this debate, Ecologic Institute develops policy advice on the potential for streamlining existing planning and reporting requirements in the energy and climate policy field while improving their quality and consistency. Moreover, the team is analysing the relationship between the current and likely future reporting requirements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the EU's internal governance system.

Wunder, Stephanie and Franziska Wolff 2015: International Governance Screening of Global Urban Policies and their Impacts on Sustainable Land Use. Discussion Paper prepared by GLOBALANDS Project. Öko-Institut, Ecologic Institute, Berlin.