Ecologic Institute supports the Horizon 2020 project "Towards a Just, Ethical, and Sustainable Arctic" (JUSTNORTH) with Arne Riedel as an Ethics advisor.

The project examined the effects, processes and support options for implementing innovative infrastructure coupling. Current developments, the associated transformation processes including supporting and hindering factors as well as potential sustainability effects of coupled infrastructure solutions were examined. The focus is on innovative, i.e. not established, couplings (understood as niche innovations) in the transport, energy, water, wastewater, waste management and information and communication technologies (ICT) sectors. The present volume provides a summary of the results, which are available in three sub-reports.

The project examined the effects, processes and support options for implementing innovative infrastructure coupling. The present volume examines local innovation processes in four case studies. Especially when it comes to innovations, there are no standard solutions. The technical systems must be embedded in supportive organisational structures, be economically feasible and implementable, function in a social context and encounter a enabling political and legal framework. Local actors, especially public utilities, are able to take the new, often uncertain paths, if the right framework conditions are in place.

The project examined the effects, processes and support options for implementing innovative infrastructure coupling. The present volume examines development paths, success factors and barriers as well as the contribution of infrastructure couplings to sustainability transformation and design options. Implementation processes are often complex, breaking new ground and requiring the cooperation of actors in completely new constellations and responsibilities. Whether sustainability transformation is successful on the local level depends on numerous factors that can also be shaped on local level in a systematic way. Innovations promote new structures, networks, new behaviour and knowledge.

The project examined the effects, processes and support options for implementing innovative infrastructure coupling.The present volume analyses the effects of innovative couplings on performance, resilience, resource efficiency, and social and economic compatibility. A "sustainability check" with 26 criteria was developed and tested in an expert survey. Coupling infrastructures does not automatically lead to greater sustainability, but coupled infrastructure systems have the potential to contribute to resource conservation and security of supply. This requires a differentiated consideration of the effects on sustainability.

The measures imposed by Berlin to contain the coronavirus pandemic are characterised by a pragmatic approach that poses less constraints on personal freedom than the measures adopted in other cities and countries. And yet it seems to be working. Support for small local businesses, solidarity and medical preparedness are at the heart of this approach. In this article, Doris Knoblauch from Ecologic Institute elaborates on the situation in the city of Berlin during the corona crisis.

This research report contains the results of the UBA-project "Environmental guidelines of a German Arctic policy". It highlights several starting points for the German environmental department to foster environmental protection in the Arctic, even from a non-Arctic state’s point of view. The report also describes the activities undertaken within the project to raise awareness with the general public on existing links between Germany and the Arctic. Those activities include inter alia an explanatory video and a public event.

The Corona crisis offers three important lessons for climate policies and Europe's economic recovery. First, systemic shocks – like the Corona pandemic or climate change – affect the foundations of modern societies. Second, resiliency, preparedness and time are existential factors in addressing systemic crises. Third, the world’s economic recovery must help build efficient, innovative and climate neutral economies. In turn, calls to delay climate policies draw the wrong lessons from the current crisis and undermine Europe's economic recovery. All countries, including the EU, must accelerate their emission reductions drastically.

On 20 May 2020, the European Commission launched its long-awaited Farm to Fork Strategy. The strategy is a first attempt to define long-term objectives for a healthy, just and sustainable EU food system that addresses both food production and consumption. The strategy is part of the EU Green Deal and was published against the background of the Corona crisis that has critically highlighted the dependence of the EU food system on global supply chains and the need to increase resilience against shocks – be it a pandemic or other crises such as climate change. To achieve the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F) it is now crucial, that its targets will be ambitiously implemented. The Ecologic Institute's initial assessment "The EU Farm to Fork Strategy: What needs to come next?" highlights five important steps for an ambitious implementation of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy – on EU, national and regional level.

The guidance for policy makers included in the brief is intended to help orient decision-makers in navigating the various project outputs by comparing and contrasting the BE-Rural and POWER4BIO deliverables, with the aim of guiding the reader towards the most relevant project outputs for their given context. Based on this guidance, the final section of the document provides detailed summaries of the six deliverables for further reference.

On 19 May 2020, Doris Knoblauch moderated a media training for the research focus "Plastics in the Environment". The journalist Ralf Nestler provided the content input. In addition to his work at the Tagesspiegel, he also worked as a scientist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. Nestler thus knows both sides of the relationship between science and journalism.

With more than 1500 participants in the live stream and via YouTube, the online webinar "Saving the climate with knife and fork? How our eating habits affect the environment" on 18 May 2020 was a complete success. Together, Tanja Dräger de Teran (WWF) and Stephanie Wunder (Ecologic Institute), highlighted the links between daily nutritional routines and their impact on climate, land use and health.

The current global pandemic presents both risks and opportunities for the transition to a more sustainable future in Europe. At the launch event for the newest report of the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU), Dr. Camilla Bausch discussed the importance of the European Green Deal at this moment of crisis with Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess.

COACCH Project (CO-designing the Assessment of Climate Change Costs) has launched a webinar series to share its results on economic assessment of climate change and adaptation. The second COACCH webinar was held on 14 May 2020 and focused on "Insights from the COACCH project II: Climate impacts on labor productivity and energy." The webinar presented results on sectoral economic assessments.

How to link the goals of the Agenda 2030, the Paris Convention, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction and climate adaptation policies? The project examines synergies and challenges in the joint implementation of these processes. To this end, several papers, among others on "sustainable adaptation pathways", are prepared. These present factors for successful implementation, examples of good practice and short country studies. The results are discussed with the expert audience at a seminar and a side event of the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) at the United Nations in New York.