On 30 October 2016 Canada and the EU signed CETA. Ratification of the agreement will be the next step. A new study by the Ecologic Institute analyses the environmental implications of regulatory cooperation under CETA. The study finds that CETA establishes a comprehensive institutional framework for regulatory cooperation between Canada and the EU and sets primarily procedural obligations. CETA does not contain detailed obligations that predetermine specific outcomes of regulatory cooperation. Regulatory cooperation under CETA is voluntary. Regulatory cooperation under CETA has a focus on trade liberalisation and consistency of standards. It does not focus on enhancing environmental protection. The study is available for download.

The report analysed the impact of the EU Adaptation Strategy in 2013 on the development of national, regional and local adaptation strategies in the Member States. For the report, the authors of Ecologic Institute, ICLEI und UCL analysed national, regional and local adaptation policies. The analyses included interviews with two regional governments and a survey to signatories of the initiative MayorsAdapt. The report is available for download.

The EU Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking adopted by the European Commission on 26 February 2016 is the most recent EU initiative to tackle wildlife crime. On 8 September 2016, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament (ENVI) held a workshop in Brussels on ‘Delivering and enforcing the EU Action Plan Against Wildlife Trafficking’. With support from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), Ecologic Institute organized the workshop and compiled the proceedings for this publication. The proceedings summarize the presentations and discussions.

The AQUACROSS consortium published a report on EU environmental policy synergies. Authors of the report, including Ecologic Institute, analyse these EU policies, specifically aiming to determine: How EU policies and laws contribute to and/or hinder the achievement of EU and international biodiversity targets; and the coherence and/or incoherence of current environmental protection policies affecting the management of aquatic ecosystems. The report is available for download.

Circular Economy promises a lower resource and energy use, new employment sector and economic growth. However, can an European circular economy fulfill these expectations and what environmental, social and economic impact does a transition to such an economy bear? The project CIRCULAR IMPACTS will answer these questions by collecting and assessing the existent knowledge base. On 27 October 2016, Lucas Porsch from Ecologic Institute presented the goals of the project. The slides are available for download.

In recent decades, and after a gradual improvement in water quality due to wastewater treatment and reduced industrial activities, urban rivers and lakes have become increasingly important in the planning of urban ecology, green infrastructure, green areas and climate change adaptation in European cities. According to a new EEA report, new initiatives for integrated water management in urban areas contribute to making cities greener and more sustainable.

Impact Assessment is an essential process in the world of policy-making. At the EU level, it is a requirement for every new policy project. UBA led a study to analyze the consideration for environmental impacts in these studies and whether there were lessons to learn for Germany. Ecologic Institute collaborated with Zurich-based INFRAS to scrutinize a sample of IAs published by the European Commission and analyze emerging trends. UBA and the consulting team then organized a workshop in Brussels to discuss their findings with representants of European Institutions (DG Environment, European Policy Research Service, Joint Research Center, etc.) and international IA experts. The presentation slides by Ecologic Institute and INFRAS are available for download.

Innovative ways to manage the urban water cycle are required to deal with an ageing drinking and waste water infrastructure and new societal imperatives. This paper examines the influence of water governance in enabling transformations and technological innovation uptake in urban water management. A governance assessment framework is developed and applied in three case-studies, examining different scales and types of innovations used to tackle challenges in European urban water management. The methodology combines documentary analysis and interviews to reconstruct historical storylines of the shift in the water governance of urban water management for each site. The research provides detailed empirical observations on the factors conducive to innovation uptake at the local level. Critical governance factors such as commitment to compromise, the necessity to build political support, and the role of "entrepreneurs" and coalitions are highlighted. The paper also explores the role of discursive strategies and partnership design, as well as that of regulative, economic and communicative instruments, in creating barriers and opportunities to initiate and secure change. A number of recommendations targeted at innovators and water managers are presented in the conclusion.

The issue of closing mineral cycles was analyzed in eight European regions and the results are presented in the report "Resource Efficiency in Practice – Closing Mineral Cycles". The authors of BIO IS, Ecologic Institute, AMEC, Danish Technical University, University of Milano and LEI, identified measures that support the closing of mineral cycles within the study regions. For each region, practical and strategic options to reduce the nutrient surplus further were derived.

The final conference of the project "Post-carbon cities of tomorrow" (POCACITO) led by Ecologic Institute, will take place on Friday, 21 October 2016 in Brussels. At the interactive conference we will present our experience in developing long-term strategies with stake-holders through visioning and backcasting workshops and other results of the project, such as a high level document or 'roadmap' to achieve livable post-carbon cities by 2050. Registration is now open!

High-impact storm events have demonstrated the vulnerability of coastal zones in Europe and beyond. These impacts are likely to increase due to predicted climate change and ongoing coastal development. In order to reduce impacts, disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures need to be taken, which prevent or mitigate the effects of storm events.This paper gives an overview of the products and results obtained in the FP7-funded project RISC-KIT, which aims to develop and apply a set of tools with which highly-vulnerable coastal areas (so-called "hotspots") can be identified. The paper is available for download.

This report, prepared by the EEA and the Ecologic Institute, builds on a food system approach to explore the knowledge base, and the mesh of actors and activities that enable the EU to produce, trade and consume seafood. It then further assesses the implications of such a food system analysis for EU policy and knowledge development as a means to transform Europe's food system in line with sustainability goals. The report identifies three complementary pathways in the current EU food and seafood related policy framework, and the related knowledge base that can help support a more functional system. The report is available for download.

This paper presents a collection of six essays, in which climate policy experts express the different views on the EU crisis from Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Lisbon, London and Warsaw. The paper is available for download.

The BioSTEP policy workshop focuses on local and regional businesses and their role in the regional bioeconomy. It explores a broader model of the bioeconomy (bottom-up, participatory) and discusses how small and medium-sized enterprises, civil-society organisations and further relevant actors can be engaged in the (further) development of a regional bioeconomy strategy in Scotland.

The Brexit, migration, the Euro crisis, continued economic malaise, and the rise of EU-sceptical parties and nationalist sentiment across Europe – the European Union (EU) is in turbulence. In a new paper Ecologic Institute analyses how the concurrent crises could affect EU climate and energy policy. The paper is available for download.