Between September and November 2013, Ecologic Institute researchers were part of a team that visited five areas of North-West Europe to assess regional drought governance frameworks in the field. Whereas drought is as yet a rare phenomenon in northern Europe, climate change projections suggest increasing impacts with important consequences for agriculture, drinking water provision, and the environment. The team, in which Ecologic Institute was joined by four other research institutes, used a Governance Assessment Tool specifically developed for researching drought in its stakeholder interviews. This tool is available for download.

The water and wastewater sectors face tremendous challenges to assure safe, cost-effective, and sustainable water supply and sanitation services. Detecting and treating emerging pollutants has become a critical need in these sectors. Innovative technologies could hold the key to solving these challenges. To support the market penetration and broader application of innovative methods and technologies in the water and wastewater sectors, DEMEAU cooperates with relevant policy makers, regulators, and standardisation bodies as well as with technology producers and users on the national and EU level. The DEMEAU newsletter delivers insights and shares developments within the DEMEAU FP7 project.

The SimRess project analyzes the potential effectiveness of policy measures and mixes in the field of resource policy. Considering a time horizon through 2050, the project will interpret model simulation results from both a system dynamics model and an econometric model. The modeling process will inform policy recommendations, and might, therefore, contribute to further developing the national resource efficiency program ProgRess.

Netgreen is building a network of decision makers and scientists interested in fostering the transformation to a green economy. To support decision makers in that transition, Netgreen develops a database and website that enables decision makers to identify the green economy indicators most suited to their need.

The Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program is a distinguished transatlantic initiative that offers fifteen accomplished Americans the opportunity to complete a comprehensive professional development program in Germany. The Bosch Fellowship is comprised of three main components: customized work placements, professional seminars, and German language training. Ecologic Institute is always happy to host Bosch Fellows.

Hirschnitz-Garbers, M. / Porsch, L. (2013): Bürgschaften für die Finanzierung von Aktivitäten zur Steigerung der Ressourceneffizienz von KMU. Kurzanalyse 4 im Projekt Ressourcenpolitik: Analyse der ressourcenpolitischen Debatte und Entwicklung von Politikoptionen (PolRess). www.ressourcenpolitik.de

Climate change has and will continue to have far-reaching impacts on environmental, social and economic conditions. Increasingly, climate change and the associated increase in the frequency of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and rising sea level is recognized as not only having humanitarian impacts, but also creating political and security risks that can affect national/regional stability and the welfare of people. This report presents a comprehensive regional assessment of these questions in the CLICO study area – the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Sahel – and is available for download.

The Baltadapt Strategy and its accompanying Action Plan on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region were launched and presented during the final Baltadapt Conference. The aim of the Baltadapt Strategy is a connected region with informed actors on all levels, where the specific objective of the Action Plan is to strengthen the capacity for adaptation action at all relevant levels and to enhance adaptive capacity in the region. The aim of the Baltadapt project was to formulate a Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region, as well as an accompanying Action Plan with recommended actions and proposed guidelines for climate change adaptation. Both documents are available for download.

<p>Many indicators needed for the EU environmental pressure index are not available for the whole time period needed. The Ecologic institute developed with SERI a methodology to fill those data gaps and provid up to date data sources for all needed indicators.</p>

Sustainable river basin planning and management are not "business-as-usual" approaches, creating exceptional challenges for water managers across Europe. To address these challenges, additional knowledge and know-how in designing dissemination activities and management approaches are needed. Ulf Stein from Ecologic Institute and Beatriz Medina from Amphos21 held a lecture on "Communicating Science" as part of the second WaterDiss2.0 Summer School.

Gerdes, Holger et al. 2013: Ökosystemleistungen. Landnutzung, Lebensqualität und marktbasierte Instrumente in land- und forstwirtschaftlich genutzten Kulturlandschaften. Ecologic Institut, Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Öko-Institut e.V.

ELEEP is a dynamic, membership-only forum for the exchange of ideas, policy solutions, best-practices and professional development for early and mid-career North American and European leaders working on environmental and energy issues. Ecologic Institute developed ELEEP's website which offers a place for ELEEP members to interactively exchange information in a blog, register for ELEEP study tours, get news about ELEEP and join online events. The website also contains a dynamic map displaying the origins of ELEEP's fellows and alumni.

This video addresses the advantages and shortcomings of bioassays to tackle pollutants in water and waste water. It was produced as part of the DEMEAU project that Ecologic Institute was involved in.

The objectives of the report were to provide information on how inspections are currently being undertaken for selected Member States in the policy areas of water, nature protection and CITES so as to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, combined with information from other studies, the study developed options that could be taken forward at EU level to strengthen inspection and control and it assessed the impacts of those options.