This research report by Ecologic Institute identifies ways in which Germany can improve international soil governance in the short, medium and long term. It begins with an inventory of existing international instruments and institutions relevant to soil governance at the international level. It assesses the actual and potential steering effects of international treaties such as the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the climate regime as well as regional agreements. It also analyses the activities of FAO, UNEP, IPBES and the activities of the IPCC.

The ocean is a source of life for human beings. "Understanding human influence on the Ocean and the Ocean's influence on people" is at the core of ocean literacy. Supported by the European Commission, the EU4Ocean Coalition connects three large communities of organisations, projects, people and schools that contribute to ocean literacy and the sustainable management of the ocean: The EU4Ocean Platform is the hub for organisations and initiatives to connect, collaborate and mobilise efforts on ocean literacy.

This paper aims to explain to the failure of six carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects installed at coal power plants within the European Union. The projects were funded across six different members with varying suitability to coal-based CCS, which raises the question of whether common domestic factors can be identified that explain the failure of all projects. The perspective of Europeanisation is adopted to examine this question.

On 8 June 2020, the first Virtual Ocean Literacy Summit was organised on the occasion of the World Oceans Day. There was no better chance to celebrate the creation of the "EU4Ocean" coalition and its dedication to ocean literacy, together with Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, and IOC-UNESCO. Because of the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, we met virtually to officially announce and celebrate this launch and share ideas and perspective for the protection of our blue planet.

This report prepared by Valerie Fogleman with assistance of Ecologic Institute examines and analyses financial security for liabilities under the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) in Member States in which it is voluntary and those in which it is mandatory (the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain). It focuses on insurance because the vast majority of Member States have not introduced mandatory financial security for ELD liabilities.

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.

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.

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.

In order to overcome the negative effects of conventional meat consumption, many alternatives are emerging that could offer solutions. But is that really the case? In the webinar "The future of meat: from trend analysis to policy action" Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute and Sylvia Veenhoff from the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) presented and discussed the results of a trend study commissioned by the UBA describing three core trends: artificial meat, plant-based meat and insect food.

On 5 May 2020, the expert workshop "Urban nature-based solutions in Germany – experiences, successes and future challenges" took place online as part of the NATURVATION project. At this workshop, more than 60 experts from policy, administration, practice and research jointly discussed current challenges, need for action and options for a broader application of nature-based solutions in Germany.

Alken, K., Smieszek, M., Riedel, A., Rachold, V., Grosfeld, L. 2020: Arctic Governance. Current Knowledge on the Theme. Fact Sheet by German Arctic Office at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar und Marine Research, Potsdam.

COACCH Project (CO-designing the Assessment of Climate Change Costs) launched a webinar series to share its results on economic assessment of climate change and adaptation. On 30 April 2020, the project hosted its first webinar "Insights from the COACCH project I: Climate change impacts on agriculture, forestry, fisheries and coastal areas" and focuses on sectoral economic assessments.

Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, there is great temptation for recovery plans to prop up yesterday’s economy. Instead, recovery plans and any economic stimulus must “build back better” and contribute to a resilient and sustainable future. In an EURACTIV op-ed, the directors of five leading think tanks and founders of the new Think Sustainable Europe network argue that any stimulus must be informed by science, strengthen resilience as well as solidarity, support the transformation towards low-carbon, sustainable societies and deal with the current challenges on an appropriate scale.