Berlin has set ambitious standards for the prevention of CO2 emissions, with significantly stricter targets in the new Climate Protection Act (EWG Bln). What are the targets and opportunities, and what are still the major challenges and barriers? In order to become climate-neutral, it is imperative that the building sector be given greater consideration. The Climate Protection Act and the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Program (BEK) 2030 emphasize the exemplary role of the public sector in this area. This means that public buildings such as school buildings are a key factor. In the districts' renovation roadmaps, schools sometimes account for more than 80 percent of the buildings that need to be renovated for energy efficiency in the next few years.

This project flyer summarizes the key features of the project and introduces the four "i's": innovation, investment, infrastructure and integration. The flyer also summarizes the six work packages and their main thematic focus. Ecologic Institute designed a programme flyer as part of the visual identity for the project "Transformative Policies for a Climate-neutral European Union (4i-TRACTION)".

The COACCH project (CO-designing the Assessment of Climate CHange costs) has proactively involved stakeholders in the design and delivery of research, as part of a collaborative co-production process. To do this, it developed a set of success factors for successful co-design and developed a protocol (process) for implementation. This was implemented for the project, through the use of working group and deep engagement stakeholders. This deliverable reports on the lessons from this co-creation approach.

Rural regions in Southeastern and Eastern Europe are facing multiple challenges such as a rural exodus, aging populations, a declining industrial base and low innovation performance. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. In response to this, stakeholders in the five BE-Rural regions developed bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps for enhanced rural development. This publication presents short summaries of the regional strategies and roadmaps focusing on the regional context in terms of available natural resources, the social, economic and political context, the strategy development process and the priorities outlined in the strategies.

This study examines current proposals for the further expansion of photovoltaics and analyses the solutions used in Spain, the Netherlands and Austria. It shows that the two central goals – accelerating the PV expansion and involving residents – are in tension with each other, at least in the short term.

As part of the STErn project led by Ecologic Institute, an online-workshop on the socio-ecological transformation of the food system in Germany with a focus on the protein transition took place on 30 November 2021 together with 35 experts in that field. The aim of the event was to discuss possible indicators that can help to politically anchor and monitor the necessary change in dietary patterns towards more plant-based and less animal-based proteins.

As the source of 10% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions and a major carbon sink, agriculture offers significant potential to mitigate climate change. This on-farm agricultural climate mitigation is referred to as carbon farming. On behalf of the European Parliament, Ecologic Institute with support from IEEP investigate the potential of carbon farming to mitigate emissions in the EU and how to effectively incentivise farmers to act. Ahead of two key EU Commission policy proposals in December 2021 (the 'Carbon Farming Initiative' and 'Carbon Removals Certification Mechanism'), this study summarises existing knowledge on carbon farming options, business models, challenges, and evaluates funding and policy opportunities to support its uptake. The report is available to download.

From sector coupling to hydrogen, from the implementation of the Climate Protection Legislation to the European Green Deal: Achieving climate neutrality requires coordinated and effective policy management across individual departments. Climate policy is a cross-cutting task, because all sectors, from power generation to industry, buildings, transport and agriculture, must become greenhouse gas neutral without delay. Experts from the Ariadne Copernicus project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), have examined central problems of government control of German climate policy and presented options for solutions. The paper was also sent to negotiators of the coalition talks in the run-up to publication.

The European Consumer Food Waste Forum is a multi-disciplinary forum set up in October 2021 by the Joint Research Centre, which seeks to enable the EU's transition to a sustainable food system by finding solutions and developing tools that help to reduce food waste at the consumer level, including household and food services. Stephanie Wunder and 15 other practitioners and researchers will identify and develop multi-dimensional tools to curb consumer food waste, considering both the motivation of consumers as well as their ability and opportunity to change related behaviour. The tools will be multi-level addressing both the role of consumers and that of other key players engaged in food waste reduction. These will contribute to the work of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste and that of other players to help reduce consumer food waste.

Building on the kick-off event of the "Private Households" dialog forum held in June 2021, another dialog forum was held on 25 November 2021, focusing on the topic of impact. In addition to the goal of networking relevant practitioners and facilitating an exchange of experiences, this dialog forum focused on the effective and successful planning and implementation of measures against food waste. In this result documentation, you will find a summary of the reflection as well as figures of the survey results.

On the 25 November 2021, more than 70 actors dealing with food waste reduction in Germany met for an exchange on how to plan and implement measures that create an impact. The event was part of the so-called "Dialogue Forum Private Households" that is part of the German Strategy for Food Waste Reduction.

With the Fit for 55 package, the European Commission made far-reaching proposals in July 2021 to align the architecture of European climate policy with the goal of climate neutrality. These proposals include the strengthening of the existing emissions trading scheme, the introduction of new emissions trading for transport and buildings, a border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to protect against carbon leakage and the tightening of regulatory instruments for transport and buildings. However, the proposals raise a number of questions – from distributional effects and acceptance to the consistency of the instruments. In the course of this two-day hybrid event, researchers from the Ariadne consortium discussed these issues with stakeholders and decision-makers at the European level.

The year 2021 saw a positive dynamic on climate action internationally, despite the pandemic and its negative impacts on people’s well-being and on the global economy. Especially, the reverse in the US approach to the climate crisis has provided a new boost. Moreover, COP26 in Glasgow created political momentum, as it has shown a global spotlight on the need for international action and on various forms of cooperation to achieve the 1.5 °C target. In 2022, there are several windows of opportunity for further advances in multilateral cooperation on the climate crisis, including in the G7 and G20 discussions, led by Germany and Indonesia, respectively. And the new German government has reiterated its desire to create a new "climate club" in this context. This report contains several proposals for specific new initiatives that could be started.

In the coming years, the course must be set for the necessary transformation toward a society and economy that is in keeping with the needs for future generations. Science, and sustainability research in particular, has a responsibility to support this change with its resources. But what must science resemble in order to find practicable answers to the most urgent questions of the future? And what demands does this place on the research policy agenda? This event is part of the "Knowledge for Change" series of events celebrating Ecornet's 10th anniversary. Ten years ago, leading independent institutes of environmental and sustainability research in Germany joined forces to form the Ecological Research Network (Ecornet) in order to bring their combined knowledge to bear on the scientific landscape and society. With their practice-oriented, transdisciplinary research, the Ecornet institutes have been accompanying - and actively shaping - socio-ecological change for decades.

This virtual conference shared ideas for advancing additional multilateral action in support of the goals of the Paris Agreement and discuss them with international experts.