The Paris Agreement requires Parties to scale up their commitments every five years, i.e., with each consecutive "nationally determined contribution" (NDC). The recent proposal of the EU Commission for an Effort Sharing Regulation is essential for the EU to meet this obligation. The proposal, however, does not support adequately continuous scaling up of the EU greenhouse gas reduction targets. A new paper from Ecologic Institute discusses ways in which the Effort Sharing Regulation could support the scaling up of EU climate targets. The paper is available for download.

The documentary film "Soils2Sea: Reducing nutrient loadings into the Baltic Sea" illustrates the societal story of implementing the EU's nitrate directive at regional realities in the EU member states, and in particularly in the Kocinka catchment area in south central Poland. The movie was developed and produced by Dr. Grit Martinez (Ecologic Institute) and Anne Berrini (berrini films) with support from Dr. Przemysław Wachniew (AGH University of Science and Technology Krakow) and is available via Ecologic Institute's YouTube channel.

On 14 October 2016, the documentary film "Soils2Sea: Reducing nutrient loadings into the Baltic Sea" premiered in Poland. Developed and produced by Dr. Grit Martinez (Ecologic Institute) and Anne Berrini (berrini films) with support from Dr. Przemyslaw Wachniew (AGH University of Science and Technology Krakow), the movie illustrates the societal story of implementing the EU's nitrate directive at regional realities in the EU member states, particularly in the Kocinka catchment area in south central Poland. The 35-minute film will be available soon on Ecologic Institute's website.

Offsetting is seen as a mechanism that can contribute to curb the growing emissions from the aviation sector. This report investigates the way air carriers currently engage in offsetting, with a focus on the offset project types, credits, and entities involved. It consolidates evidence of offsetting practices from over 30 air carriers. The report is available for download.

Ecologic paper discusses potential implications of TTIP on the (re-)municipalisation of energy services and community power projects.

The REFRESH Food Waste Solution Contest brings much-deserved recognition to solutions to the problem of food waste and encourage their spread. Anyone from Europe that has developed a food waste innovation – including individuals, organisations, start-ups and large companies – was encouraged to submit a video or visual essay about their project.

Many open questions remain for the future governance system of the EU's 2030 climate and energy targets. This report by Ecologic Institute analyzes the possible lessons that can be drawn from the experience with the European Semester and helps provide answers on key procedural issues in the implementation/progress monitoring phase. The study is available for download.

The objective of this briefing was to provide Members with an overview of the key issues at stake at the CITES COP 17 and to introduce the new role of the EU as a single Party entity. A short overview of the history of CITES was provided, along with the current positions of the main Parties on key issues of importance. The brief identified main conclusions and recommendations for Members of the ENVI Committee to establish their own perspectives on the subject of CITES and the potential role of the EU. The briefing was conducted using published documents, press releases, official position papers, studies and other relevant sources from national, international and EU institutions and NGOs. The document is available for download.

Dooley, Elizabeth (Hg.) 2016: Closing the Mineral Cycles at Farm Level. Good Practices to Reduce Nutrient Loss in the Weser-Ems Region (Germany).

"Climate Change and Innovation: A post-Paris Agenda" was the topic of the Ottawa Climate Talk, which featured Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute as key-note speaker. It was part of a speaking tour in three provinces in Canada. Discussing topics such as innovation and national and municipal climate and energy policies, Dr. Bausch traded ideas and insights in Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton. This visit came at a dynamic time in Canadian policy making, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a federal ultimatum for provinces to introduce a carbon pricing plan by 2018 and MPs voted 207 to 81 to back the Paris Agreement.

On 20 July 2016 the European Commission published its legislative proposal for an Effort Sharing Regulation. A paper from Ecologic Institute provides comments on the Commission's proposal. The comments are available for download.

As the EU considers early ratification of the Paris Agreement, this paper explains the related key legal questions that arise should the EU push to ratify without its internal burden sharing in place and without all Member States ratifying simultaneously. The paper is available for download.

Natacha Amorsi et. al. 2016: WaterDiss. Analysis and uptake of water research results. In: André Martinuzzi and Michal Sedlacko (eds.): Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development. Innovative Tools for Increasing Research Impact and Evidence-Based Policy-Making. Routledge: London.

<p>The framework and a practical example of its application were presented by Gerardo Anzaldua (Ecologic Institute), who led the working group developing the framework, and Nadine Gerner (Emschergenossenschaft), who led the application of the framework on three case study sites in a webinar on 15. September. The webinar includes an ample Q&amp;A session with an extended group of members from the framework development team and lasted over an hour. You also can download the Power Point presentation that was used for the webinar.</p>

On 13 September 2016, the expert workshop "Discussion of an assessment system for civil society initiatives to measure sustainability and transformative potential" took place in Berlin. At the workshop, about 30 participants from science, policy, foundations, and sustainability initiatives discussed the first draft of a criteria catalogue for measuring and presenting the societal benefit of niche sustainability initiatives, especially their sustainability and transformative potential. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the assessment system. In the workshop, the application of the criteria catalogue to two case studies was also presented. The criteria for estimating the sustainability potential, the transformative potential, the organizational capacity for action, and the scalability of the initiatives were developed from 13 political and scientific assessment systems and from transition literature.