The goal of the project is to record the adaptation measures implemented in Germany up to this point and to evaluate the experiences gained from these. To that end, Ecologic Institute has developed an internet-based databank of measures, through which those interested can document their own measures and be informed on others' measures. A competition will also be conducted to determine particularly exemplary adaptation measures and to make this information known to a wider audience.

Global change holds many risks for European mountain regions. Melting glaciers, changes in permafrost and vegetation, as well as political, economic and cultural globalisation present dangers for mountain populations. Numerous research projects have produced valuable findings to ensure sustainable development in European mountain regions. Mountain.TRIP starts where these projects stop: translating research findings into useful information for practitioners.

A more traditionally jurisprudential perspective on linking is provided in this book chapter published in an anthology titled "Legal Aspects of Carbon Trading: Kyoto, Copenhagen and Beyond" published by Oxford University Press. In this chapter, Michael Mehling provides a conceptual framework for the distinction of legal and political criteria for the feasibility of carbon market linkages.

The expanding use of biomass as an energy source has been accompanied by a growing range of certification and standard-setting schemes in an attempt to ensure the sustainability of biofuel production. The result has added to the confusion in an already crowded certification market, but an opportunity to develop a streamlined global standard-setting system arises from this complexity. In this article, Timo Kaphengst, Mandy Ma and Stephanie Schlegel of Ecologic Institute outline how some of the innovative ideas coming from the biofuel certification and standardisation discussions can be applied to create a global generic standard-setting scheme for natural resources.

In a seminal online article in Internationale Politik, Germany's leading foreign policy magazine, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Senior Policy Advisor of Ecologic Institute, and Martin Kremer address the newly appointed German Minister of Foreign Affairs with six recommendations for the development of an active climate foreign policy (in German).

Srebotnjak, Tanja; Holger Gerdes; Aaron Best et. al. 2009: Evaluation of Indicators for EU Policy Objectives. Research note (D 2.1)

<p> The final event of the 13th Hessian Climate Protection Forum was a high level panel discussion on the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Panelists included the Hessian Secretary of State Mark Weinmeister, Wintershall Board Member Dr. Gerhard K&ouml;nig, Franzjosef Schafhausen from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, and Dr. Camilla Bausch from the Ecologic Institute. Journalist Thomas Hanke (Handelsblatt) moderated the panel.</p>

<p> On 24 November 2009, the Ecologic Institute was invited to address students in a lecture series titled &ldquo;Generation Green: Germany and the Environment&rdquo;&nbsp; organized by the Center for German Studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The course explored how and why Germany&#39;s Green movement addressed&nbsp; pressing environmental challenges a generation before the release of Al&nbsp; Gore&#39;s &quot;An Inconvenient Truth&quot;, allowing students to consider how specific cultural contexts shape personal attitudes, public policies and&nbsp; technological advances. Michael Mehling shared insights on &ldquo;Germany&#39;s Ecological Tax Reform: Perspectives from a Think Tank&rdquo;.</p>

Water resource licensing is increasingly becoming a cornerstone of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Licensing and other allocation mechanisms are important because they determine who gets access to water and provide a means of managing water fairly, efficiently and sustainably. As water grows scarce in an increasing number of countries, there is a significantly greater risk of corruption in the water licensing process. These risks, and their underlying factors, are not well understood. The authors of the report explore the nature of the risk of corruption using a 2007 field study, with Chile and Kazakhstan as case studies.

The committees of the European Parliament play a critical role in ensuring the effectiveness of EU policy during both the development of legislation and policy and its subsequent implementation. The Committee on Foreign Affairs (Affaires étrangères, AFET) is one of the 20 Committees of the European Parliament and is, among others, responsible for the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Ecologic Institute was leading a consortium of six institutes given a framework contract to provide the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committees with independent expert advice on a range of issues relating to developmental and environmental policy. During the course of this project, standard briefings, ad-hoc briefings, studies and workshops were conducted.

Since 2007, on initiative by the European Parliament, the European Commission (DG Relex) has sponsored transatlantic dialogues with a view to developing new approaches for handling global challenges. A conference in Brussels on 16 November 2009 reviewed the results of the first 5 pilot projects. R. Andreas Kraemer presented the outcomes of the Arctic Transform dialogue initiated by Ecologic Institute.

Christiane Gerstetter, Fellow Ecologic Legal, spoke on the legal feasibility of adopting a climate change act in Germany, modeled on the UK Climate Change Act. The presentation was a contribution to a seminar entitled "How legally-binding targets can promote more effective national climate change policy" held in the British Embassy. The presentation was based on an earlier legal expertise by Ecologic Legal on the topic, which the WWF had sponsored. It is available for download.