Buildings are responsible for more than 30% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions from energy. To increase energy and resource efficiency, the EU Renovation Wave sets the target of doubling renovation rates in the next ten years. The EU also presents the Renovation Wave as a countermeasure against energy poverty, which currently impacts around 34 million EU residents. However, EU-level analyses which connect the technical aspects of the plan with socioeconomic criteria that account for energy poverty remain scarce. In this paper, Nora Kögel from Ecologic Institute addresses that gap by investigating the distributional effects of reaching the Renovation Wave’s 2030 goals in the EU27 countries.

Strict regulation does not have to stifle the emerging market for green hydrogen — just the opposite, write Benjamin Görlach and Dr. Michael Jakob of Ecologic Institute. They argue that a unified system for monitoring, certifying and tracking green hydrogen production and trade is key to all this. The op-ed can be accessed at the EURACTIV website.

This webinar presents and discusses findings of a report by Energy Policy Group. The analysis focuses on the role of district heating in Member States' Long-term Climate Strategies (LTSs). The report describes the current situation, highlights key challenges and shortcomings of published LTSs, and proposes a way forward for integrating efficient, low-carbon and reliable district heating systems into climate neutrality strategies.

From 7 to 19 December 2022, the international community is scheduled to come together to discuss the future of the Convention on Biological Diversity. One of the key items that will be negotiated at the upcoming COP15 is the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In the light of these upcoming negotiations on 2 November 2022, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at New York University School of Law and the German Consulate General in New York organized an event with experts from New York City and Berlin to discuss the role of local governments in implementing global biodiversity targets, including the ways in which cities can support urban biodiversity. Sandra Naumann, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, presented Berlin's strategy to promote urban biodiversity and participated in the final panel.

This document summarises the results and discussion of the international online expert workshop "Fostering applied research on the synergies between biodiversity and climate".

The two-year "Soil Mission Support: Towards a European Research and Innovation Roadmap for Soils and Land Management" project supported the European Union's A Soil Deal for Europe mission on soil health and nutrition and the European Green Deal to facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This animated video demonstrates the importance of healthy soils, the nature of "lighthouses" and where to find them, as well as their contributions to healthy soils. The video was created in cooperation between Ecologic Institute and INRAE.

This policy brief prepared by Dr. Ulf Stein and Benedict Bueb from Ecologic Institute together with other European experts was published by the European Commission. It provides an overview of current gaps in the EU legislative framework that hinder the realization of the benefits of digitalisation in the water sector and offers concrete recommendations on how to overcome them.

This open access book by Dr. Luana Martin-Russu of Ecologic Institute presents an actor-centered analysis on Europeanization based on the presumption that EU-driven reforms are strongly dependent on the actions and interests of the key domestic actors. It demonstrates that the European Union's policy of conditionality, however assertive or extensive, cannot guarantee compliance with its rules unless domestic political elites are committed to reform.

This webinar, co-hosted by Climate Analytics and Ecologic Institute, presented findings and recommendations for how the EU27 can transform its economy to fulfil the Paris Agreement 1.5 °C goal. The findings are based on a quantitative analysis of the latest evidence assessed by the IPCC, which had been used to develop 1.5 °C compatible pathways for the EU27 and selected Member States.

During this webinar, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Nico Stelljes presented the highlights and the findings of the project "Indicators of an Integrated German Marine Policy" and gave an overview of a possible set of indicators to assess an integrated maritime policy at a national level, with the scope to stimulate discussions on similarities and differences in the integrated approaches to the maritime economy in the Baltic Sea Region.

This international conference provides an opportunity to learn and exchange knowledge on the topic of microplastics in soils, and is aimed at scientists and decision-makers alike. The first day of the event focuses on the state of the science, the second day on identifying policy solutions and recommendations for action at the European and international level. This hybrid event took place on 19 and 20 October 2022 in Berlin (Germany). Ecologic Institute organised the conference as a hybrid event, which was attended by 60 people on site and up to 150 people online.

For the project "New Cooperation for Sustainable Landuse and Food Supply in Urban-Rural Areas (KOPOS)", Ecologic Institute designed a ten-part postcard series. The postcard series promotes the first two episodes of the four-part KOPOS podcast series "Ernährungswende – Regional gedacht". In it, the focus of the two model projects (1) regional nutrition in Freiburg and (2) access to farmland in Brandenburg are discussed. The postcards are designed according to the project's style guidelines and also include a QR code to the corresponding podcast episode.

Since we learned how to produce plastic, humans have manufactured more than 8.3 billion tons of it – most of which ended up as waste somewhere on the planet. This leads plastic waste to enter the landscape, rivers, beaches, and eventually ocean. We asked our listeners what, in their opinion, is the issue with plastic pollution. The answers ranged from negative impacts on human health and the environment to lack of recycling infrastructure and the global dimension of the plastics problem.

This webinar was jointly organised by the projects: INTERLACE, CONEXUS, REGREEN and CLEARING HOUSE as an official side-event of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2022. The webinar brought together about 500 representatives from cities, regions and local authorities, city network representatives, policy-makers, researcher, civil society and experts on nature-based solutions and urban ecosystem restoration from Europe, China and Latin America.

Nature-based Solutions (NBS) for EU cities and regions represent an integral part of the EU's transition to achieving climate neutrality. In this panel, moderated by Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis, experts discussed effective, just and inclusive strategies to design, implement and manage NBS, while engaging under-represented or marginalised stakeholders. The event was part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.