A continuing decline in biodiversity, accelerating impacts of climate change, and the urgency of ensuring a sustainable and just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic are generating unprecedented momentum behind the imperative of working with nature to address societal challenges. In this policy brief, McKenna Davis and Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University) highlight the importance of prioritizing nature-based solutions in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and supporting their uptake within and beyond the biodiversity community.

Int this report, Irina Herb and Christiane Gerstetter of Ecologic Institute, as well as Alexandru Matei (ICLEI), present insights on how nature-based solutions can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defined in the 2030 Agenda, and recommend several pathways for doing so.

The UNITED project report "Current Environmental Assessment and Status of the Pilots" provides a comprehensive overview of the current environmental assessments and status of various pilot projects. These projects included a variety of multi-use concepts in the marine environment, including the combination of offshore wind energy with shellfish and kelp cultivation, offshore wind and solar energy, shallow estuarine aquaculture and kelp cultivation, and tourism. The report looks at the environmental aspects of these pilot projects and assesses their environmental impacts, regulatory requirements and existing environmental assessment results and monitoring capacity.

In this publication, Doris Knoblauch (Ecologic Institute), Lorenzo Felicetti, and Ulf Stein (Ecologic Institute) shed light on the untapped potential of ICT solutions in water management across Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen, Paris and Sofia, the five cities analysed in the project digital-water.city. In the analysis, the cross-cutting nature of digital water governance, and thereby its multifunctionality in terms of policy goals became evident.

This podcast explores different aspects of urban nature through stories of innovators from across Europe who use their passion and creativity to make cities green.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to secure healthy, resilient, biodiversity-rich ecosystems that deliver the range of services essential to the prosperity and well-being of citizens. Nature-based solutions (NBS) are central to achieving the objectives of this strategy. Sandra Naumann and McKenna Davis from the Ecologic Institute have published a report outlining the contribution of over 30 EU-funded research and innovation projects to EU biodiversity, climate and other policy objectives and sustainable transition processes.

This podcast explores different aspects of urban nature through stories of innovators from across Europe who use their passion and creativity to make cities green.

This short study gives a broad overview of the Commission’s proposal for the new Multiannual Financial Framework and the Next Generation EU program and their proposed climate investment shares.

2020: Local Action for Green and Blue Infrastructure – Lessons learned from transdisciplinary and cocreation processes in cities. ENABLE Policy Brief 2.

2020: Operationalising EU Policies for Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure. ENABLE Policy Brief 1.

For energy-intensive industries, the transformation towards a climate-neutral form of production is a particular challenge, not only because of their large carbon footprints, but also because they are embedded in value chains that are still predominantly fossil-based. However, they too are part of the effort to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and at the same time accelerate the transition by providing competitive clean technology solutions. This study explores how European energy-instensive industries can transition to a climate-neutral economy while maintaining, and ideally improving, its global competitiveness. It investigates different technology options, policy designs and financial instruments.

This commentary contributes to the discussion on the recently released Draft Guidelines on Uniform Framework for Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) by India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The authors argue that the draft guidelines fall short of fulfilling its purpose for three reasons. Basing their recommendations on learnings from experiences of developed countries with mature EPR ecosystems and contextualizing the same for ground realities of India, authors provide a 6-point agenda to address the issues raised.

This study examines approaches of a set of European Union member states to pursue a coordinated approach to climate change adaptation (CCA) policy. It specifically addresses the co-ordination approaches that the selected countries use for the development and implementation of their national CCA policies in the immediate period following the publication of the EU's 2013 Adaptation Strategy.

The #YoungOceanWaves contest, promoted by the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) encouraged everybody – especially young people – to show what the ocean means for them: marvelous colours and living creatures? Fun? Sports? Crazy or relaxed adventures? Delicious food or jobs? Ecologic Institute developed social media video trailers for the EU4Ocean contest.

Ecornet is a German network of independent research institutes with a focus on the environment and sustainability. The goal of this unprecedented research project "Wissen. Wandel. Berlin" was to strengthen Berlin's pioneering role in the development of innovative approaches to ensuring a liveable, climate-neutral and sustainable city. The Ecornet Berlin website was developed, implemented and designed by Ecologic Institute. It served the public communication of the project's goals, events and results.