This article, written by Ruta Landgrebe and Benjamin Boteler from Ecologic Institute in the theme issue of the German League for Nature, Animal Protection and Environment’s (DNR) newsletter, concerns environmentally harmful EU subsidies in the agricultural and fisheries sectors and argues for continued support for the "greening" of the EU budget, including the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies for the new seven-year funding period 2014-2020.

On 9-10 February 2012, DG Environment of the European Commission organized the 2nd Stakeholder Workshop for the Fitness Check of EU Freshwater Policy in Brussels. Lessons learned from this workshop contribute to the design and assessment of policy options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources. Eleftheria Kampa and Johanna von der Weppen contributed to the workshop conclusions. The conclusions are available for download.

In preparation for the Rio+20 conference, which took place in June 2012, the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) published a guide for citizens. The publication discusses trends and statistics concerning sustainable development from the viewpoint of Anne, a 17 year old student. Anne seeks answers to everyday questions and tries to find out if Europe has actually moved towards sustainable development over the past 20 years.

Lawyer Anke Rostankowski, who works as an Associate at Ecologic Institute, contributed to the latest commentary on the German Renewable-Energy-Heat-Law. This issue of the renowned commentaries EEWärmeG: Erneuerbare-Energien-Wärmegesetz of the Beck Verlag deals with the legal and technical experiences that have been gained with the law.

This poster was used during the final conference of the FP7 funded project mountain.TRIP to present the project result mountain.WOCUR.

Homeyer, Ingmar von; Sirini Withana et. al. 2011: Final Report for the Assessment of the 6th Environment Action Programme.

This article provides a stock-take of the state of the European Union's (EU) position heading into the climate change negotiations in Durban in late 2011. A long-time champion of an effective global system under the auspices of the UN, the EU finds itself in a difficult position as the future of the Kyoto Protocol is seen to being a stake at the summit in South Africa. With a number of other industrialised countries jumping ship and declaring their unwillingness to continue the Protocol in a Second Commitment Period, the EU is feeling ever more exposed and under pressure to declare for the continuation of Kyoto.

The results of a scenario exercise carried out under the OPEN:EU project suggest that the transformation of Europe into a One Planet Economy by 2050 would require very aggressive policy action. The study is available for download.

Climate change and ongoing transformations in the economy and agriculture will have numerous, strong impacts on the Baltic Region. The book "Global Change and Baltic Coastal Zones" provides comprehensive information on these changes, their consequences and the practical challenges they pose. Grit Martinez and Daniel Blobel from Ecologic Institute, along with co-authors Livia Bizikova (International Institute for Sustainable Development) and Rob Swart (Alterra Wageningen University and Research Centre), contributed a comparative analysis of climate change adaptation projects and strategies in different coastal regions of the world. The publication is supported by the RADOST project (Regional Adaptation Strategies for the German Baltic Sea Coast), which Ecologic Institute coordinates.

Longer and warmer summers on the German Baltic Sea coast: this is a possible implication of climate change that could certainly also serve as an opportunity for the tourism sector. At the same time however, negative impacts such as increased algae growth are also expected. Communities and stakeholders in the coastal region will have to adapt to these impacts in the near future. In the first RADOST annual report, the RADOST project partners present both impacts and possible adaptation strategies in the fields of coastal protection, tourism, water management and agriculture, ports and marine economy, renewable energy and conservation and land use.

Do the National Renewable Energy Action Plans concerning Member States' goals for 2020 address the long-term restructuring of electricity generation? Do they consider possibilities for European cooperation? Dr. Stephan Sina and Katharina Umpfenbach of the Ecologic Institute examined these questions in their analysis of the German Renewable Energy Action Plan commissioned by the European Green Foundation.

Road transport is the most important driver for increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union and is therefore critical to achieving the EU's 20 % greenhouse gas reduction target in 2020. The objective is to decouple economic growth and the demand for transport with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This video (8:36 Min.) visualizes European data on economic growth, transport and greenhouse gas emissions.

The EU has set ambitious targets to raise the share of renewable energies, particularly biofuels. This article, written by Stephanie Schlegel and Timo Kaphengst, discusses the role that bioenergy plays in the European policy context and the approach the EU is currently following to ensure the sustainability of biofuels. It addresses the limits of the chosen approach, concluding that certification schemes can not serve as the only safeguard for sustainable bioenergy, but need to be complemented by other tools and policies.

The Open Method of Coordination has so far mostly been applied in areas in which the EU has weak legislative competencies. Recently, however, several OMC-type mechanisms have emerged in the environmental field, where the EU has a significant legislative role. In this article, Ingmar von Homeyer discusses two environmental OMCs: the environmental dimension of the Lisbon Strategy and the Common Implementation Strategy of the Water Framework Directive.

The article is based on a brochure the author wrote for the project "EcoFuturum – A Sustainable Constitution for Europe" which was co-funded by the European Commission. In the framework of this project, Ecologic published a number of policy papers and carried out a series of workshops throughout the enlarged European Union to discuss the impact of the future Constitution on European environmental policy.