From 4 - 10 May 2008, a visitors programme on climate and energy issues took place in Berlin, Dessau and Bonn. The programme was organised by Ecologic in co-operation with the German Federal Foreign Office, addressing policy-makers on the state, regional and municipal level as well as journalists. It included appointments with experts from ministries, the UNFCCC, think tanks and NGOs as well as field visits to leading examples of the German "ecological industrial policy".

The EC-Water Framework Directive (WFD) stipulates that all water bodies have to achieve good status or good ecological potential by 2015. It is conceivable, though, that most of the German water bodies will not meet these objectives. Many German Laender will therefore request a time extension from the EU. The authors, along with Ingo Bräuer, Senior Fellow with Ecologic, discuss in their article how exemptions can be justified transparently and in accordance with the requirements of the Directive.

Transboundary river basin management, in itself a complex subject due to the variety of countries and stakeholders involved, is facing increasing challenges due to new social, economic and climate-change drivers. In this article, Tom Raadgever, Erik Mostert, Nicole Kranz, Eduard Interwies, and Jos Timmerman analyse the regime features that contribute to adaptive management of these basins.

<p>At an Ecologic Dinner Dialogue in Brussels on 24 April 2008, Jamie Shea and Helga Schmid discussed the role for the EU and NATO in responding to threats arising from climate change. Jamie Shea is Head of Policy Planning at NATO. Helga Schmid is Policy Unit Director at the EU Council Secretariat. Both agreed on the importance of the issue. While it is already on the agenda and reflected in various EU documents, Jamie Shea laid out reasons why it is not yet at NATO’s agenda and made recommendations that could help change the current situation.</p>&#13;

An Ecologic Dinner Dialogue took place on the eve and in anticipation of the 3rd ETTAR (Environmental Technologies, Training and Awareness Raising) Workshop dealing with training and awareness-raising needs to improve the environmental performance of freight transport. Sebastian Bäckström (WSP, Sweden) shared his personal views about the need for more sustainable transport featuring low emissions and prices reflecting the environmental impact. Mr. Bäckström's starting point was that "something is wrong" in the organisation of current transport systems and transport patterns.

Industrial production processes account for a considerable share of the overall pollution in Europe. To minimize harmful effects on the environment and push for environmentally sound technology, the EU’s Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control policy (IPPC) requires polluting operators to obtain environmental permits for running their industrial installations. By doing so, the policy aims at providing incentives for clean technologies and eventually excluding irresponsible polluters. Willing to complement the EU’s efforts to implement IPPC standards within the Union, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) promotes cooperation between the EU and its Eastern and Southern neighbours. To support the effort, the European Commission has issued a guide to pollution prevention and control for its European neighbours and Russia.

In "Environmental and Material Flow Costs Accounting", Christine M. Jasch, Ecologic Partner and Director of the Institute for Environmental Management and Economics (IÖW) in Vienna, explains and updates the approach developed for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSD/UNDESA) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The book also includes several case studies and recent developments regarding Environmental and Material Flow Cost Accounting (EMA and MFCA) in national statistics and ISO standardization.

Sascha Müller-Kraenner's book questions the security of the energy policies from global powers such as the United States, Russia, and China. It offers a geopolitical perspective on the importance of environmentally safe energy resources.