The rapid changes in economic, social and security policy as well as the upcoming enlargement pose a challenge to the European Union and its institutions. Incisive reforms are necessary. This is the background for assigning the task to the Convention of preparing a draft for a forthcoming European constitution. With the Project "Europe's democratic challenge: Actively shaping European environmental policy" Ecologic follows this process from an environmental point of view.

The EC increasingly participates in international conferences and mixed international agreements alongside its Member States. The appearance of both EC and Member States raises questions of competences for the negotiation, conclusion and implementation of such international instruments. In particular in the field of marine environment, substantial progress is hindered by an opaque division of competences between the EC and its Member States and lack of coordination. Accordingly, the German Federal Environmental Agency commissioned Ecologic with the task of analysing the division of external competences between the EC and its Member States taking into account the OSPAR-Convention.

The overriding objective of this research project, called for in the Environmental Research Agenda of the German Federal Environmental Agency, is the analysis of existing liability regimes in the light of the further development of the European liability regime. Using an interdisciplinary research approach, both national liability regimes within and outside Europe and international regimes will be examined regarding the extent to which environmental damages can be compensated, the procedures and methods in existence for determining and calculating damage and compensation in theory and practice and the manner in which the compensation is carried out.

Different reform initiatives and processes of general interest or of specifically an environmental nature, like the Lisbon process or the 6th Environmental Action Program, will have substantial influence on the future shaping of European environmental politics. The study "EU Environmental Governance" analyses and assesses these initiatives and lays down new options for their further development.

Environmental law is only effective if people comply with it. In order to improve compliance assurance of (European) environmental law, an action plan has been adopted at European level. Studies show that compliance with environmental law must also be improved in Germany. Following-up on these ideas, the Ecologic Institute, in cooperation with its partners (GAF AG and Dr. Aron Buzogány), puts them into practice in the project "Legal and technical review of selected questions of compliance assurance at European and national level".

The European Union is strongly committed to shifting to a competitive, low-carbon circular economy. The first European Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) from December 2015 set a framework for stimulating the transition towards a circular economy. It is foreseen to revise the CEAP in 2020 to further strengthen the momentum and enable businesses, industry and society to transition to a circular economy.

The European Ocean Coalition (EU4Ocean) connects diverse organisations, projects and people that contribute to ocean literacy and the sustainable management of the ocean. Supported by the European Commission, this bottom-up inclusive initiative aims at uniting the voices of Europeans to make the ocean a concern of everyone!

Addressing energy consumption and related GHG emissions from buildings constitute a major challenge in the light of the climate crisis. At the same time, the interplay of building policies with other policy areas comes into focus with sector coupling, digitalization but also lifecycle considerations and adaptation to climate change. For the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy, the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), Climact, Creara Consultores and Ecologic Institute investigate which lessons can be learned from already existent integrated policy approaches for new buildings and buildings undergoing a major renovation.

The European commission strives for carbon-neutrality in Europe by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, the energy intensive industries will have to reduce their emissions substantially. On behalf of the European Parliament, CE Delft and Ecologic Institute will summarise how energy intensive industries in Europe can transition to a carbon-neutral energy economy while preserving their global competitiveness.

Ecologic Institute contributes to the project "Provision of Technical Support Related to Target 2 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 – Maintaining and Restoring Ecosystems and their Services" for DG Environment. The concerned task focuses on better understanding the impact from the bioeconomy’s current and future demand on biodiversity in the EU.

The objective of this project is to support DG Climate Action (European Commission) in its assessment of Member States’ key challenges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and related policies recently put into place. The information should also help DG CLIMA in enhancing the role of climate policies in the European Semester. With this project, Ecologic Institute continues the work in this field since 2012.

The aim of this project is to promote the international dissemination of knowledge about emissions trading systems, to provide practical experience from Europe and Germany and to support countries in setting up a national emissions trading system. Hence, existing teaching materials on emissions trading will be updated and expanded, new teaching modules on other topics will be developed, and network meetings, workshops and information events (e.g. side events, trade fairs) with experts will be held. In addition, foreign governments and government-related institutions will be supported on special topics by practical assignments of experts at home and abroad. The experience gained in Germany and the EU, relevant knowledge and "good practice" can thus be passed on to interested countries.

This project provides important input into the Commission report to the European Parliament and Council on the implementation of the National Emissions Ceilings (NEC) Directive (2016/2284/EU), which is due by 1 April 2020. Under the NEC Directive, Member States are required to provide the Commission and EEA with data on the negative impacts of air pollution upon ecosystems, which they collect from a network of monitoring sites representative of their different habitats and forest ecosystem types. This project analyses the submitted data – including on completeness and quality –and assesses how the ecosystem monitoring and reporting process could be improved for future reporting rounds.

In this project, a mapping of young Europeans dealing with environmental protection was created. On this basis, a list of 35 suitable candidates for a workshop in Brussels was derived. At the workshop, representatives of DG Environment will have the opportunity to exchange and network with the young environmentalists. The preceding mapping, which was primarily carried out by Ecologic Institute, explicitly involved young social media influencers.

In a study for DG FISMA, the Ecologic Institute and its partners supported the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in the development of technical screening criteria for agriculture activities to be included in the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. The tasks included: 1) scoping of agriculture activities with significant potential to contribute to mitigation and adaptation; 2) drafting of criteria, metrics and thresholds to ensure that selected activities substantially contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and do not significantly harm any other environmental objectives; 3) supporting research on means for compliance checking; 4) organising a workshop with expert group members; and 5) preparing inputs to support the Impact Assessment of the agricultural components of the Taxonomy. The outcomes of the study were integrated in the Technical Report on EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy.