Bangladesh needs to turn its pledges into effective policy instrument to realize the promises about greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation made in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). In that regard, analyzing the energy and climate policies of Bangladesh and consulting with the stakeholders from Bangladesh and other countries, Shafiqul Alam provides insights on the possible policy instrument for Bangladesh to achieve the target of NDC and raises some fundamental policy issues. His study is available for download.

The Energiewende means a transition from the old, nuclear-and-coal based, to a sustainable and digitalized energy system. This is a complex endeavor: the number of actors involved increases and their functions overlap. While digital technologies bring automation and potential for relief, they are an ambivalent phenomenon: with no comprehensive laws on data protection, it is unclear what is going to happen to the tremendous amount of data collected by digital appliances. Besides, technologies like blockchain are often so energy-intensive that they eat up the amount of resources that they are trying to save. Therefore, political design must actively shape a digital and ecologically sustainable energy transition – it will not happen by itself.

The production of food results in by-products. Instead of disposing them as waste, they can also be valorised into new products. This quiz lets you find out what new products can be made from this food waste. The player scrolls two image galleries and chooses two pictures that correspond as food waste and new product. There are eight possible pairs to be found. How many pairs can you find?

Science is believed to provide the most objective basis for effective decision-making, though it is rarely implemented in environmental management. Here, the authors reflect on the results of a regional workshop aimed at exploring the knowledge and use of scientific evidence by environmental managers in an ecologically diverse region in southern Spain: Andalusia.

Energy security – the uninterrupted supply of energy at reasonable prices, as defined by IEA – has both external and internal dynamics. It can be ensured through local adequacy, that is, abundant and varied forms of indigenous energy resources, but the countries that face local shortages, as in Bangladesh, depend on imports. Shafiqul Alam explains in his online article in the Dhaka Tribune how internal measures could attenuate reliance on external sources.

In response to Brexit, the EU embarked on a process of reflection and possibly reform, the so-called Bratislava Process or the Process on the Future of Europe. At its meeting on 9 May 2019, the European Council was expected to draw first conclusions. As a contribution to this process, the Ecologic Institute, the Istituto Affari Internazionali, the Institute of European Environment Policies and the Climate Strategy Institute 2050 offered a number of recommendations to EU policy makers on how EU climate policies can support this process, and on how climate policies can benefit from it. The recommendations are available for download.

At the 2019 European Urban Green Infrastructure Conference (EUGIC), Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis chaired a session looking at the role of Horizon 2020 funding for nature-based solutions (NBS) and co-organized a side session to present insights from the NATURVATION project. The conference took place from 10 to 11 April 2019 in London (England). Approximately 350 urban green infrastructure experts, practitioners, policy makers, designers and implementers came together to share and celebrate nature-based solutions for climate-adapted, resilient, healthy cities.

The 2019 European Think Tank Summit in Madrid brought together think tank leaders from all over Europe – and some guests from Asia and America – to discuss pressing political issues, including the changing face of Europe, artificial intelligence, migration, NATO and the role of think tanks. Ecologic Institute's Director, Dr. Camilla Bausch, elaborated on new policy approaches and public engagement strategies in the field of national and international climate protection.

Bringing together food waste experts from across Europe, the REFRESH Community of Experts (CoE) launched a series of four webinars on 'Tackling Food Waste Across the Supply Chain'. The series demonstrates how policy makers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, municipalities and many more organisations involved in the food supply chain can effectively address food waste. This month-long webinar series, hosted from 9 April to 2 May 2019, included expert speakers from ten institutions. The webinars offered an opportunity to gain insights from case studies, ask questions of the speakers and get signposts to further information.

What role can nature-based solutions (NBS) play in climate change adaptation and mitigation? How can NBS be applied in order to achieve integrated risk management and resilience? These questions were addressed at the 'Paris Forum on NBS'. Sandra Naumann, Senior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, presented in the plenary session insights from city initiatives in Europe to demonstrate the potential of nature-based solution and to highlight remaining challenges needing to be addressed.

Ecologic Institute designed a programme flyer as part of the visual identity for the project "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions." The programme flyer was developed and designed to provide relevant content on conference context, agenda, and the venue in a concerted way to participants.

As part of the EU H2020 RURECO project, Dr. Josselin Rouillard carried out a one-month research exchange with the University of Davis, California focusing on sustainable groundwater management in Europe, France and California. Seminars with academic staff at UC Davis and Stanford University were organised comparing European and Californian strategies for sustainable groundwater management. Workshops and meetings were organised with the State Water Resource Control Board and nine groundwater sustainable agencies across the state of California. The blogpost is linked in the article.

On 19 March 2019, Cairo Climate Talks brought together experts from all disciplines to discuss the results of COP24 and the needed action for COP25. Climate negotiators, climate science experts, and policy makers shared their valuable insights. Arne Riedel, Fellow at Ecologic Institute in Berlin and member of the German delegation to the UN climate negotiations took place on the panel discussion.

Public campaigns and other policy instruments can significantly influence consumer behaviour and contribute to a reduction of consumer food waste. However, there are only very few studies that have evaluated to what extent policy interventions actually reduced or prevented food waste. In this REFRESH Policy brief Ecologic Institute's Stephanie Wunder summarises REFRESH findings on consumer behaviour as well as related research results and derives policy recommendations to reduce consumer food waste.

This analysis considers options for the global post-2020 chemicals and waste regime. It has been prepared with a view to the intersessional process underway concerning the future of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) after 2020, as well as the recently launched Alliance for High Ambition on Chemicals and Waste and the parallel explorations concerning global arrangements to address plastic pollution and highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs). These issues overlap and will need to be considered for the post-2020 chemicals and waste management regime. The analysis is available for download.