The Europe 2020 strategy is the EU's strategy for creating smart, sustainable and inclusive growth since 2010. In this strategy, the European Union has set five ambitious objectives - on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy - to be met by 2020. Each Member State adopted its own national targets for each of these areas. Concrete actions at EU and national levels underpin the strategy. Andreas Prahl and Katharina Umpfenbach (Ecologic Institute) authored chapter 3 on climate change and energy where the recent development of key indicators in the field of climate change and energy, including data on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and energy efficiency, is analysed. The publication is available for download.

The 2015 Paris Agreement requires the world's countries to overhaul fossil-fuel based economies and transition to low-carbon societies by mid-century - and asks that all develop national long-term strategies towards that end. Ecologic Institute has developed a concept for the evaluation of such long-term climate strategies for the project MaxiMiseR, run by WWF, which has now published results for the EU countries based on elements of this concept. The concept is available for download.

Between July and October 2016 this six-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.

O'Donnell, Brendan; Max Gruenig 2016: How Germany is Building a Secure, Affordable, and Climate-friendly Energy System for the 21st Century. Ecologic Institute: Washington, DC. Flyer.

This brochure is directed to US policy decision makers and provides information on the German energy transition. In the document Brendan O'Donnell and Max Gruenig of Ecologic Institute, Washington DC define and explain the different phases of the German energy transition. The brochure is available for download.

On 5 July 2016, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation on "The Energy Transition in Germany and the Renewable Energy Sources Act: Context, Legal and Procedural Aspects" for a delegation from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of the People's Republic of China. The presentation was part of a study tour on European and German Climate Change Legislation organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The presentation slides are available for download.

From 4 to 15 July 2016, the 16th ICAP Summer School on Emissions Trading brought together experts from emerging economies and developing countries to learn about emissions trading as a tool for climate protection and to discuss the options and experiences of implementing such systems in developing countries. The Brussels course was the sixteenth of its kind since 2009. 28 mid-career professionals from eleven countries attended the course, which was facilitated by Benjamin Görlach and Matthias Duwe of the Ecologic Institute.

BASE Consortium 2016: Key Policy Issues in Implementing and Evaluating the EU Adaptation Strategy. BASE Policy Brief # 4.

In this study, Ecologic Institute researched – together with ICLEI and the Austrian Environmental Agency – how cities and regions that have signed the Covenant of Mayors went through the process of creating and implementing their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). The case studies provide an overview of the multi-level governance activities of Hanover, the Region of Barcelona and the Region of Emilia Romagna. For the case studies pertaining to sustainable financing, the city of Bath, the Region of Sardegna and the city of Namyslow were picked. The study is available for download.

Within the framework of the 11th International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP 2016) organized by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and taking place in Potsdam from 20 to 24 June 2016, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), in cooperation with the Embassy of Canada and the Ecologic Institute, will hold an event on the topic of "Permafrost Research at the Science-Policy Interface". Registration for ICOP 2016 is open until 31 May 2016.

Lucha, Christine; Andreas Prahl; Bettina Kampman et. al. 2016: Local and Regional State of Play and Policy Recommendations Concerning Sustainable Heating and Cooling: Focusing on EU Level Policy. European Committee of the Regions: Brussels.

In the last few years, transformation research has gained increasing attention as means of studying socio-ecological crises and radical change towards sustainability. Especially the transformative research mode, through which research actively engages in societal change processes, is intensely debated. This workshop, organized by DRIFT with support from Ecologic Institute, aimed at self-reflection on empirical and theoretical foci, frameworks and suitable research methods in transformation research. The workshop report is available for download.

Concluding four years of interdisciplinary collaboration and research the BASE project brought together representatives working on climate adaptation policy at EU and Member State level, as well as local practitioners for an interactive day on climate change adaptation in Brussels. The main focus of the workshop was a series of policy observations that emerged from research in the BASE project. As a result another policy recommendation was developed which is available for download.

The EU research project "Bottom-Up Climate Adaptation Strategies for a Sustainable Europe" (BASE) recently announced the "Interactive Policy Workshop: Implementing the EU Adaptation Strategy - Practical insights and policy recommendations" to be held in Brussels (Belgium) on 9 June 2016. The aim of this workshop is to bring together stakeholders to share experiences of adaptation to climate change in policy and practice from across Europe. Stakeholder inputs will shape a series of recommendations that will be fed into the review of the EU Adaptation Strategy in 2017. Participation in this interactive workshop is free of charge. Please register now!

This book draws on the European Commission funded project MILESECURE-2050. It considers low-carbon energy security and energy geopolitics in Europe with a focus on four thematic clusters: challenging the energy security paradigm; climate change and energy security objectives (the components of a secure and low-carbon energy system); energy security in a geopolitical perspective, as it relates to economics, resource competition, and availability; and the influence of large scale renewable energy projects on energy security and shifting geopolitical alliances. Max Gruenig served as one of the book's editors and further researchers, Andreas Prahl, Katherine Weingartner and Brendan O'Donnell, were chapter authors.