The first International Symposium of the NICHES project will combine presentations about international successful examples of nature-based solutions and provide a forum for discussion about current challenges and opportunities in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.

On 6 March 2023, participants joined webinar hosts Ewa Iwaszuk and Aaron Best from Ecologic Institute and their expert guests Claire Dupont, Professor at the Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent University, and Matthias Duwe, Head of the Climate Team at Ecologic Institute. Together, they discussed the central role climate policy plays in the European Green Deal and explored how policy can spur innovation and reduce net emissions to zero in the European Union.

The EU has just updated its climate target for 2030 and most of the policy instruments in place to achieve it. Does this toolbox have all the items needed to achieve the shift to net-zero emissions by 2050? This discussion paper by Oeko-Institut and Ecologic Institute addresses and analyses the main pillars of the EU's climate policy identifies crunch issues on the path towards climate neutrality and offers potential solutions.

The Commission's proposal on the Carbon Removals Certification Framework puts the EU on a dangerous path that makes it easier to replace emissions reductions with CO₂ removals. Integrating CO₂ removal into EU emissions trading also carries risks. In this project, a robust framework for CO₂ removal was developed and discussed.

Transformative research projects develop approaches to sustainability challenges and involve relevant stakeholders in the process. OftenSometimes there are insufficient resources to put the ideas developed into practice, to test them and to learn from the test run. The "KOPOS" project (New Cooperation for Sustainable Landuse and Food Supply in Urban-Rural Areas), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) tackles this challenge and breaks new ground.

The NICHES project flyer illustrates the main project objectives and case-study cities. An overview of the project process is illustrated, together with details of the partner cities implementing the project. The flyer is styled according to the project style-guides and contains contact information.

This blog post shows why the EU Renovation Wave should link environmental and social issues. EU member states are currently facing three crises: the climate crisis, an energy security crisis and a social crisis. The EU Renovation Wave has a key role in responding to all three crises. However, it can only fulfill this key role if the implementation of the renovation wave is socially fair.

Germany's current nutrition system is not sustainable; it requires a far-reaching socio-ecological transformation. This finding forms the starting thesis of the STErn project, whose interim results and policy recommendations for action were discussed at a workshop on 21 March 2023. This paper provided the basis for the discussion.

Almost one third of all packaging in Germany is so-called transport packaging, which becomes waste after its single use. Despite the factual relevance of this packaging group, it is strongly underrepresented in the public perception as well as in the political discourse. During the online expert dialogue "Reusable Transport Packaging" on 27 February 2023, good examples from practice were presented and potentials, challenges and necessary elements for the expansion of reusable transport packaging were discussed together with experts from trade, logistics industry, civil society and politics. The summary is available for download.

This report identifies and assesses the likely contribution of Poland's CAP Strategic Plan to climate mitigation and adaptation, natural resources, and biodiversity protection.

This assessment identifies the likely contribution of Poland's CAP Strategic Plan to climate mitigation and adaptation, natural resources, and biodiversity protection. Overall, the findings are that the Plan is insufficient to respond to the country's needs in relation to environment and climate challenges.

The Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Urban Mobility, Consumer Protection and Climate Action (SenUMVK) and Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg organised an online expert dialogue on "Reusable Transport Packaging" on 27 February 2023 to discuss potentials, challenges and elements for the expansion of reusable transport packaging together with experts from trade, the logistics industry, civil society and politics.

Carbon pricing is a policy instrument that is very popular with researchers and many policy makers as well. To be implemented effectively, it requires widespread acceptance by society. This paper presents an empirical study carried out in Germany directly before the implementation of its new carbon-pricing scheme for fuels in 2021.

In this webinar session, the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) presented its latest report "Offset Use Across Emissions Trading Systems", followed by a discussion with an expert panel drawn from policy making, offset project origination, and an offset crediting standard. Questions discussed included the role that offsets can play in carbon pricing instruments, the benefits and risks of their use, policy solutions to maintain the integrity of the emissions trading system, and implications of offset use for the market for emission allowances.

Despite Germany's Circular Economy and Waste Management Act "Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetz" of 1996, the country's economy remains essentially linear. To transition from this status quo and lead the way towards a genuinely circular and resource-efficient economy, the development of a National Circular Economy Strategy (Nationale Kreislaufwirtschaftsstrategie) (NKWS) is now in progress. The project provides scientific support to the development of this strategy, as much as to the related debate.