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

EUROSTAT has issued its 2017 edition on Sustainable Development in the European Union. The report provides an updated snapshot of the current situation concerning a selected number of indicators related to the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Over the past five years, the EU has made significant progress towards five goals and moderate progress towards eight SDGs. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.

In the frame of this project a short study on the policy instrument of specific CO2-emission targets for car manufacturers in the EU is carried out which analyses and evaluates the policy instrument. The foci of the research are two questions: How did the instrument perform regarding the reductions of specific CO2-emissions of passenger cars? And how much can it contribute to reduce overall CO2-emissions of passenger transport in the EU, so as to contribute to reaching the target of the Paris agreement to stay below a warming of 2°C? The short study is available for download.

The project "From 'The Blue Sky above the Ruhr' to the Energiewende" aimed at shedding light to the factors that have driven the development of scientific environmental policy advice in Germany. The project team applied the "oral history method", holding a total of 20 interviews with contemporary witnesses. Ecologic Institute produced the project website which provides an overview of the goals, methods and partners of the project. The project's findings as well as videos of the interviews are available for viewing in the media library.

The EU research project EFFACE assesses the impacts of environmental crime as well as effective and feasible policy options for combatting it, with a focus on the EU. Ecologic Institute designed and developed the EFFACE website which provides an overview of the project objectives, structure and partners as well as events. Furthermore the website provides links to the project findings, publications and policy briefs and hosts the EFFACE Newsletter. An internal area supports the coordination of the project work that involves 11 European universities and think tanks.

Next to steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is essential to keep average global temperature increases to 1.5°C, and well below 2°C. At this point in time, there is effectively only one realistic and sustainable way to help remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere: restoring degraded forests. A strong and reliable governance framework is a pre-condition to restore degraded forests at the necessary scale. A new Ecologic paper discusses how to design such a governance framework for the EU. The paper is available for download.

The EU is currently negotiating a comprehensive reorientation of energy and climate policy for the decade 2020-2030. In this strategy brief, Katharina Umpfenbach discusses how the next German federal government can shape the EU negotiations so as to create an EU electricity market regulation that is conducive to the German energy transition. Four central elements are identified: raising the ambition of energy targets and introducing long-term targets, developing effective oversight instruments to ensure compliance, adjusting the electricity market to the needs of wind and solar power, and initiating an exit strategy for coal firing. The strategy brief is available for download.

Ecologic Institute co-authored the RECREATE policy brief no. 7 on challenges and opportunities for national waste prevention programs. The authors state that the political framework needs to be more enabling and with further support for research and development targeted at measuring waste prevention and behavior change to unlock the potential of waste prevention. The RECREATE policy brief is available for download.

Weiland, Sabine and Jenny Tröltzsch 2015: BASE Evaluation Criteria for Climate Adaptation (BECCA). BASE Policy Brief # 3.

Moreira Alves, Filipe Miguel et al. 2014: Challenges to Planning Climate Adaptation Strategies in Europe. BASE Policy Brief # 2.

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.

This booklet gives an overview of the POCACITO project, focussing on the methodology used and most importantly on the major findings, results and outcomes of the project.

This document provides a state-of-the-art review to support the conceptual and practical development of the DESSIN ESS Evaluation Framework. It briefly presents the state of affairs regarding the measurement of changes in ESS, including description of existing classification systems, analytical frameworks and economic valuation methodologies. The challenges associated with spatial and temporal variations of ESS are considered and an approach to define and measure sustainability is presented. Finally, the next steps in the work plan of Work Area 1 are outlined.

The DESSIN Ecosystem Services Evaluation Framework is a methodology used to systematically assess the impacts of innovative solutions to water-related challenges from the environmental, economic and social perspectives. The framework consists of the DESSIN Cookbook, a Companion Document, a Supplementary Material File and a Case Reporting Template. The framework is aimed at decision-makers, practitioners and technology developers who want to evaluate the potential impacts of new technologies and water management measures on freshwater ecosystems and their services. The documents are available for download.

The overall goal of the DESSIN ESS software system is to support users implementing the DESSIN ESS evaluation framework and sustainability assessment. This document describes how the software should do this, from the end-user perspective. The document is organized into so-called "user stories". Each user story describes a task that a user would like the software to perform, and explains why performing the task provides value to the user. The users stories are organized into "epics", which are groups of similar stories. Most of the user stories are written from the perspective of an evaluation lead carrying out an ESS assessment, as this was thought to be the most likely user of the system. The software framework presented here was developed by DHI, ECOLOGIC, SINTEF, and IWW in collaboration with the DESSIN user group, which consists of the demo site representatives who will be the end users of the software.