Despite President Trump's skepticism regarding the Paris Agreement and his focus on fossil fuels, the interest in the German Energiewende and the role of renewables remains high in transatlantic exchange. Dr. Camilla Bausch, Director of Ecologic Institute, was invited to speak at two high-level events with US policy makers.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) as a promising nature-based solution are the focus of a new chapter, written by Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis and Sandra Naumann. The authors utilize a range of case studies and evidence from across Europe to underline the potential of SUDS as a tool to reduce the negative effects of urban flooding and resultant water pollution. The diverse environmental and societal co-benefits are also presented as well as insights on the potential cost-effectiveness of SUDS as compared to grey infrastructure solutions.

This chapter first analyses the legal structure of the overall Paris Outcome in terms of the legal status of the different texts, how they are linked, and how they together form the new climate regime. The chapter then looks at the structure of the Paris Agreement's content, i.e. how its individual provisions work together. Finally, it provides a bird's eye view of the legal nature of individual sections and provisions, and concludes with some further insights.

On 19 July 2017, Eurostat published its most recent flagship publication "Smarter, greener, more inclusive?". The report assesses the EU's progress in implementing the Europe 2020 strategy. Commissioned by Eurostat, Katharina Umpfenbach of Ecologic Institute edited the chapter on climate change and energy. It discusses progress towards the so-called 20-20-20 targets which aim at cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable energy supply, and improving energy efficiency. The publication is available for download.

Between July and September 2017 this nine-part webinar series brought together Arctic experts, professionals and students. The webinar series covered topics including shipping and marine governance, energy, environmental impact assessments, science, security, and indigenous communities in the Arctic.

This article describes the functionality of the Adaptive Marine Policy (AMP) toolbox, which was developed in order to operationalize the design and implementation of adaptive policies on the basis of the Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA). It aims at providing policy makers with a practical framework to design and implement adaptive policies. The authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Benjamin Boteler and Ina Krüger, summarize the results of the application of the toolbox to the marine litter issue in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. The article is available for download.

<p>Is the existing EU policy framework fit to protect and restore marine biodiversity? Could an upstream approach such as the utilization of ecosystem-based management be the key to coordinating environmental policies? At the Future Oceans conference titled "Advances in Integrated Ocean Research towards Sustainable Development" held at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Kiel from 2 until 7 July 2017, Ecologic Institute's Katrina Abhold and Lina Röschel gave short, energetic talks that addressed exactly these pressing issues in the fields of marine science and policy. In the Science Session on Ocean Resilience on Tuesday 4 July 2017, Katrina Abhold, a Researcher at Ecologic Institute, presented ecosystem-based management (EBM) as an opportunity to strengthen EU environmental policy coordination to better protect aquatic biodiversity.</p>&#13;

How can we improve policy monitoring of national implementation to further protect the Arctic environment and its inhabitants? With the WWF Arctic Council Scorecards, Ecologic Institute and WWF International Arctic Programme undertook the effort to provide a first overview of the implementation status of specific recommendations by the Arctic Council with a particular focus on maritime activities, climate change and biodiversity protection as well as ecosystem-based management.

<p>Is the existing EU policy framework fit to protect and restore marine biodiversity? Could an upstream approach such as ecosystem-based management be the key to coordinating environmental policies? At the Future Oceans conference titled "Advances in Integrated Ocean Research towards Sustainable Development" held in Kiel (Germany) from 2 until 7 July 2017, Ecologic Institute's Katrina Abhold and Lina Röschel gave short, energetic talks that addressed exactly these pressing issues in the fields of marine science and policy. On Monday 3 July 2017, Junior Researcher Lina Röschel kicked off the Science Session on Ocean Pressures by elaborating on the complexity of the EU's existing policy framework in relation to halting biodiversity loss.</p>&#13;

This video provides insights into the REFRESH Food Waste 2017 Multistakeholder Conference, which took place on 18 May 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The Conference brought together leaders in food waste prevention, reduction and valorisation. REFRESH partners presented the latest results and ongoing work of the REFRESH Project.

The infographic visualizes the structure and interaction of the rating categories for assessing the potential for transformation of sustainability initiatives, as developed in the project "From Niche to Mainstream - How to Spread Sustainable Practices";. The evaluation system pursues the aims of initiatives, social innovations, sustainability innovations etc. to their potential for transformation and their sustainability effects, and to evaluate them, depending on the application context.

<p>On 29 June 2017 Ecologic Institute, together with the multEE consortium and the Energy Community Secretariat, held their final conference at the Sofitel in Vienna. The event served as an interactive forum for exchange and joint learning. A lively participatory approach was adopted to summarize and review all of the project's achievements and impacts to date, while paving the way for future cooperation. The presentation slides are available for download.</p>&#13;

Ecologic Institute co-authored the guideline "Relevance of Indicators for Policy Making" which is the third and final publication in the Eurostat's series. This guideline takes a closer look at how indicators, which take up an increasingly prominent role in the political sphere, can improve policy making by providing examples from theory and practice. It also puts forward recommendations for researchers and experts on how to create indicators that are relevant, and points out the potential stumbling blocks of using indicators to guide political processes. The guideline is available for download.

<p>More than 450 decision-makers discussed the urgent matters of our time during the "World Food Convention 2017", where the Ecologic Institute was a partner. Stephanie Wunder, Ecologic Institute's Senior Fellow joined the World Food Convention's panel on "Human Eating Behaviour" in June 2017. In her statement she pointed out that eating behavior can be changed and diets can be healthier and more environmentally friendly at the same time. However, as she underlined, we should not trust that the informed consumer will simply change the system, and that we need to make it easier for people to live healthier: provide access to good foods, get the prices right and reconnect people to the food system.</p>&#13;

In 2050 nine billion people will live on Earth. Already now with only seven billion people to feed, the distribution of resources is unequal and the global food system is not sustainable. With the World Food Convention, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel organized an international high level event on 22 June 2017 in Berlin. 500 participants from policy, industry, diplomacy, NGOs as well as science and academia discussed the most pressing issues of global food production and distribution. The Ecologic Institute was a partner of the World Food Convention. Ecologic Institute's Senior Fellow Stephanie Wunder spoke in the panel "Human Eating Behaviour".