“Engaging the Climate Behemoths: Transforming Energy Policy in America and China” was the topic of the Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honour of William K. Reilly, co-chair of the US National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP). The challenges for China’s coal driven energy sector as well as for the US, considering not only energy and climate protection needs but also the wish for economic growth, were discussed in the light of the new proposals of the NCEP. This Transatlantic Climate Dinner Dialogue took place on 6 September 2005 in Berlin.

In recent years, the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) has emerged as an increasingly important instrument of EU governance. Rather than relying on legally binding rules, the OMC works through the diffusion and evaluation of information. On 2 September 2005 Ingmar von Homeyer, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the application of the OMC in EU environmental policy at a workshop organised by the German Federal Office for Building and Spatial Planning (BBR) in Bonn.

Bausch, Camilla; Benjamin Görlach; Christine Lucha et. al. 2005: Ausstieg aus der Kernenergienutzung und Modernisierung der Stromversorgung am Beispiel Schweden. Berlin.

The rise in the number of environmental institutions at the international level can be seen as a source of inconsistency within the implementation, enforcement, and rule-making processes of the environmental governance system. In this discussion paper, Ecologic Institute provides background information and several detailed maps to illustrate the spatial dispersion of the various institutions. The publication is available for download.

At the 45th Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Benjamin Görlach and Eduard Interwies presented some research results on the valuation of environmental and resource costs in Germany. The lecture took place as part of a special session on water and economics in the frame of the 45th ERSA Congress, held at the Free University of Amsterdam. The special session was organised with support by the Dutch RIZA, and was chaired by Eduard Interwies.

The huge variety of subsidies, taxes and charges in the transport sector make it very difficult to assess whether all modes of transport are indeed priced according to the external effects they impose on others. In order to ensure fair competition and a level playing field for different modes of transport, transport prices need to reflect the true costs of transport. To better understand this issue, the EEA has commissioned Ecologic and the Chair for Transport Ecology at the TU Dresden to provide an overview of subsidies, taxes and charges in the European transport sector.

This year’s International Summer Academy of the University of Greifswald, “Energy and the Environment”, took place in Irkutsk, Russia, from 21 to 27 August 2005. The focus was "Implementing Kyoto – Opportunities and Challenges for Transition Countries". Christine Lucha and Dr. Camilla Bausch were asked to give a lecture on their experiences in the gathering of CO2-data needed for the establishment of the German National Allocation Plan (NAP), as part of the implementation of the new European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

The new National Climate Protection Program, as agreed upon by the federal government on 13 July, was the subject of the "Climate Talk" on 13 August 2005. Experts from business, science and politics discussed the economic and political meaning of the program, particularly against the backdrop of emissions trading, Germany's (formerly) leading role in climate protection and Germany's 2012-emissions-reduction-goals. Presentations were given by Astrid Harnisch (Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Protection, BMU), Regine Günther (WWF) and Sven Reinhardt (CDU/CSU-faction).

The worldwide emergence of public policy research organizations has occurred only recently. Compared to the US, the concept of "think tanks" is relatively new in Germany, and there are only a very limited number of institutions active in policy research and policy consulting. On 12 August 2005 Markus Knigge, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation at the Bucerius Summer School on how Ecologic – one of the few German think tanks – contributes to environmental policy making on the German, European and international level.

The project's objective is to identify optimal waste management strategies for three different European regions. A multidisciplinary (environmental, economic, social, legal) approach is applied in evaluating different strategies. Ecologic will cover the socio-economic assessment of the identified strategies.

Herbke, Nadine; Britta Pielen; Jessica Ward et al. 2004: Deliverable 7 Implications of the Different Scenarios – EUROMARKET Water Liberalisation Scenarios - Analysis of the Environmental Implications of the Scenarios. Ecologic– Institute for International and European Environmental Policy/ UNESCO-IHE – Institute for Water Education.

On behalf of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), Ecologic Institute examined the impacts of renewable resources on soil quality and options for sustainable cultivation. The study is available for download.

In 1980, Sweden decided to phase out nuclear energy. In 2004, however, an IEA study showed that Sweden had the highest production of nuclear energy per citizen, whereas the use  of wind power potential, for instance, was only recently seriously furthered.  Ecologic brings critical light to the inconstant swedish energy policy, and their effects on nuclear and renewable power.

The international workshop "Implementing the Economic Aspects of the WFD – Future Challenges in the Elbe River Basin", held in Leipzig on 7-8 July 2005, saw a gathering of 60 WFD experts from all over Europe. The results of this workshop have been summarised by Britta Pielen, Benjamin Görlach and Robert Holländer.

Most foundations have a charter aimed at improving the state of the world in which we live. The single most important resource to achieve this goal is through financial donations, or the income generated from endowments. The reputation risk of endowments being associated with speculative or unethical business practices, or investments that are in contrast with a foundation’s objective, has increasingly been an agenda item of foundation boards. In this project the PRIME Toolkit has been developed to help foundations manage their endowments in a socially responsible way.