In the framework of the Integrated Energy and Climate Programme the German government is revising the law on renewable energies. Ecologic acts as a consultant to the the German Federal Ministry for the Environment focusing on legal questions relating to the Renewable-Energy-Sources-Act, the draft of a Renewable-Energy-Heat-Act, and technical and legal questions relating to biogas.

Biomass constitutes an important but limited renewable energy source for the future. In this article, Timo Kaphengst discusses sustainability aspects of biomass use for bioenergy in the European context. The article is available for download.

Germany has a very good record on water services. Despite high connection rates and almost full cost recovery, the total annual costs for consumers are at the same level or even cheaper than in other countries. This is an outcome of the specific way in which water management is organised in Germany. This contribution by R. Andreas Kraemer, Britta Pielen and Colette de Roo endeavours to explain the practice of municipal enterprises embedded in Germany’s federal structures, the levels of water services, and reveals why water services can be as good and as cheap as they are.

<p> Ecologic led a study examining the potential contributions that trade policy could make to combating climate change. R. Andreas Kraemer, Director of Ecologic, made a presentation of the results before the European Parliament&#39;s Committee on International Trade.</p>

<p>&#13; This presentation provided an analytical overview of EU environmental policy from its beginnings in the early 1970s up to the present. He showed that EU environmental governance today must be understood as an amalgam of four environmental governance regimes that have successively been layered on top of each other over the past 35 years.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; Besides the potential benefits of biomass, there is increasing public awareness of the more problematic aspects, including a possible increase in the intensity of agriculture and further destruction of the rainforest. In her lecture, Stephanie Schlegel outlined the opportunities for and the risks of renewable energy expansion with emphasis on the current debate surrounding the bioenergy boom. In addition, she led a discussion with the audience about which instruments are useful for creating the bioenergy boom sustainably and the requirements for policy and consumers.</p>&#13;

<p> On 14-15 June 2007, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) convened the international conference &quot;Europe and America: Managing the 21st Century&#39;s Agenda to look at an array of topical issues including global warming.&nbsp; Stefan Theil, Bureau Chief of Newsweek in Germany moderated, and Patrick S. Moon, Director at the US Department of State, and R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic addressed the question &quot;How to Tackle Climate Change?&quot;.</p>

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<p>&#13; At the American Corner of the city library in Skopje, Macedonia, Aaron Best discussed recent developments in energy and climate policy in the United States, seeking to explain the resurgent interest in these issues on the part of the American people.</p>&#13;

Ecologic led a study examining the potential contributions that trade policy could make to combating climate change. The objective of the study was to provide Members of the European Parliament with an assessment of the relationships between international trade and climate change, and to identify possible means of using trade policy options to combat the problem. The study examined the economic, policy and legal aspects of the issue and included a quantitative evaluation of carbon dioxide emissions associated with specific traded and EU-produced goods. The study is available for download.

<p>&#13; Aaron Best spoke at the EcoFest 2007 held in Ohrid on the shores of Lake Ohrid in the southwestern part of Macedonia. He discussed water policy and management in the USA and EU, sharing with the audience international experience on a topic of particular interest to the residents of Ohrid.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; At the EcoFest 2007, Aaron Best discussed the relationship between transportation and the environment, focusing in economic terms on the costs and benefits to the environment of various modes of transportation. He also discussed some of the ways governments offset some of those costs through taxes and charges.</p>&#13;

On 4-5 June 2007, a workshop on the Water Framework Directive and Hydropower was held in Berlin. Focus of the workshop was on hydropower use and the relationship to hydromorphological changes. The workshop aimed at the exchange of information and views on good practice in hydropower use, strategic priorities on the catchment level as well as instruments to promote hydropower and to improve water status.