As an output of the research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE), which was coordinated by Ecologic Institute, an edited volume entitled "Environmental Crime in Europe" was published by Hart Publishing. Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, contributed a chapter on environmental crime in Germany. In this chapter, he describes the legal framework on environmental crime in Germany and assesses its conformity with the EU's Environmental Crime Directive.

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.

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.

As part its on-going participation to a framework contract with the European Commission on supporting the implementation of European water policies, Ecologic Institute led an assessment of how Member States' current Rural Development Programmes (2014-2020) address agricultural pressures on water bodies and promote measures that can contribute to protect and restore the water environment, reducing flood and drought risk. The report is available for download.

The edited volume, Fighting Environmental Crime in Europe and Beyond: The Role of the EU and Its Member States, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2017. The edited volume sums up the findings of EFFACE, a multi-disciplinary and international research project on environmental crime in Europe, funded by the European Union (EU). "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) was a 40-month research project that included eleven European research institutions and think tanks and was led by Ecologic Institute Berlin. The edited volume consists of six case studies conducted during the project on different types of environmental crime.

This policy brief illustrates how SWITCH-ON supports globally-connected science, digital innovation, and the use of open data to help citizens, governments, and businesses in Europe and across the globe move towards a sustainable future. It shows how the 14 SWITCH-ON products are closely aligned to the SDGs by addressing several EU environmental policy objectives. The SWITCH-ON Policy Brief No.4 is available for download.

Striking a balance between centralization and decentralization of competences is a challenge that dates to the start of European integration. There are some drivers that work towards greater centralization of EU climate policies – the need for enhanced climate action, electricity market integration and a realization of the Energy Union. At the same time, centralization in and of itself is not a guarantee for more ambitious or effective climate policies. In a new publication appearing in the journal Climate Policy authors Camilla Bausch and Benjamin Görlach of Ecologic Institute and Michael Mehling of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) trace the evolution and role of the centralization/decentralization debate in the context of EU climate policy. The article looks at emissions trading and the promotion of renewable energy as cases of centralization vs. decentralization, but cautions that this trend is neither smooth nor guaranteed to persist. In the dynamic and reflexive governance system of the EU, there is no one-size-fits-all, optimal balance between centralized and decentralized policy from a climate perspective.

Participation in the adaptation processes of river basin planning is necessary for sustainable water management. The article supports this statement by providing an overview of the work carried out within the framework of the BeWater project. We illustrate the methodology applied in the project, which resulted in four river basin adaptation plans for catchments in Cyprus, Tunisia, Spain and Slovenia. Furthermore, the project's case studies are presented as well as the challenges that stakeholders identified within their respective river basins. We show how the project was initiated in the case study basins and how it influenced their river basin management processes. An overview of the prioritized measures is given as well as a summary of BeWater's contributions to future river basin management undertakings. We end the overview with an outlook on how stakeholder participation can improve river basin adaptation.

Ecologic Institute coordinated the organisation of the European Resource Forum (ERF) 2016. For these the programme brochure was developed and designed, to hand it over to participants. It contained information about the event agenda and schedule, speakers and a space for notes. The design of the brochure and the color scheme were based on the visual style of UBA. The ERF brochure is set on 52 pages. The A5 brochure was printed on recycled paper.

This publication has been issued by EUROSTAT and provides a snapshot of the current situation concerning a selected number of SDG-related indicators and accompanies the European Commission Communication on the next steps for a sustainable European future (22 November 2016). 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 (Partnership for the goals). The publication 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.

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.

The European Commission has proposed a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to enable ambitious climate policies in EU member states and to incentivize emission reductions in other countries. This paper adopts a dynamic, multilevel, polycentric perspective to discuss how domestic as well as foreign interest groups would be affected by the policy.