<p>&#13; On 5 November 2009, the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) in Frankfurt/Main hosted a workshop focusing on “Opportunities and limits of the ecosystem services concept.” Holger Gerdes, Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation on the application of the ecosystem services concept in policy consultancy.</p>&#13;

This article, which is co-authored by Senior Fellow Ingmar von Homeyer of the Ecologic Institute, introduces a special issue of the journal International Environmental Agreements on environmental policy integration (EPI) at the international level. Referring to the integration of environmental concerns into other, non-environmental policies, the concept of EPI has been applied at national and EU-level but has rarely been analysed in relation to the global arena.

<p>Ecologic Institute implemented an ongoing project evaluation of the LIAISE network of excellence to assess the outcomes and the impacts of the LIAISE Network of Excellence. The main purpose of this was to identify and exploit opportunities to bridge the existing gap between the research and the policy community in the field of Impact Assessment (IA) and to improve the use of IA tools in policy making.</p>

Policy makers from Middle and Eastern Europe as well as from developing countries visited Germany to co-operate on issues of environmental technology transfer. Representatives from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) met foreign partners and other stakeholders of the environmental technology transfer in conferences, workshops etc.

Kraemer, R. Andreas; Max Gruenig; Dominic Marcellino 2009: Financial Sustainability of Water and Sanitation in Germany. in: Massarutto, Antonio (ed.): Financial Sustainability of Water and Sanitation Undertakings an Application to Italy, Germany and the US. Milano. 31-53.

<p> At the Institute for European Studies of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Michael Mehling of the Ecologic Institute joined a panel on &ldquo;Post- Kyoto Strategies Compared: European and North American Pathways to Low Carbon Market Economies&rdquo; held on 30 and 31 October 2009. Participants analyzed the emergence of particular shapes and designs of Post-Kyoto strategies on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Ecologic Institute contributed a unique transatlantic perspective to the comparative discussion.</p>

<p>&#13; The Indiana University European Union Center organized a full-day conference entitled "European Union Regulatory Policy: Lessons for Indiana." Dominic Marcellino gave a presentation on the development of EU energy and climate policy over the past decade, pointing out trends and possible future developments, and highlighting implications for Indiana.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; From 15-16 October 2009, the Center for Foreign Trade Law at the Institute for Public Economic Law of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster hosted its 14th Foreign Trade Law Day, focusing on energy and climate change. At this conference, Benjamin Görlach, economist for the Ecologic Institute, delivered a presentation entitled ‘Economic Instruments between Kyoto and Copenhagen: quo vadis Climate Protection?’</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; At the sixth and final EPOS Network Meeting that took place on the 15th and-16th October 2009 in Budapest, Doris Knoblauch presented the analysis of the stakeholder participation processes that took place within the federal or national sustainable development strategies in five European countries. The project revealed that a major challenge was how to deal with all the input generated through the participation processes.</p>&#13;