This project aimed to support the creation of harmonized, ambitious, politically credible, and robust long-term climate strategies (LTS) in EU Member States by supporting a growing community of political and technical experts involved in LTS preparation inside governmental institutions and providing opportunities for capacity building, exchange, and knowledge generation. Additionally, core analysis focused on the specific topic of climate change laws as an effective means of embedding long-term strategic thinking in overarching governance frameworks at national level.

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.

The National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) are a key tool of the Energy Union Governance towards achieving the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets. All Member State had to submit their drafts by 31 December 2018. The Ecologic Institute, together with CLIMACT, developed a methodology to rate and rank the draft NECPs. Funded by the European Climate Foundation, this project sheds light on how well Member States are fulfilling the obligation of the Governance Regulation and thereby, how well Member States are supporting the achievement of the 2030 targets.

Retailers play an essential role in shaping product decisions via their own business choices—choices regarding which suppliers to work with, what items to stock, how to manage supply-chain operations, what information to provide to consumers, as well as how their own brand identity and market positioning will relate to sustainability. Retailers thus occupy a unique position in the product value chain, being intermediaries between producers and consumers, with considerable influence on which goods we enjoy as consumers, the means by which they come to us and the long chain of impacts related to our purchasing decisions.

A Climate Neutral Europe by 2050 – a possible vision for the future? On 28 November 2018, the European Commission published analysis to underpin a new long-term strategy (LTS) on climate policy for the EU, laying out a vision of how to decarbonize the European economy. Ecologic Institute evaluates the Commission's analysis in a project for the German Environment Agency (UBA) and monitors further development of the 2050 strategy's adoption process.

The 2016 REFIT Evaluation of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) showed that the national implementation is working to a much lower extent than could be expected and with a great variation between the Member States. Under the Multi-Annual Work Programme for the period 2017 to 2020, the European Commission promotes, among others, the availability of financial security across the EU. Supporting this objective, the project aims to enhance the evidence base in relation to the current situation in Member States.

Climate and resource policy are important fields of action at international and national level. In contrast to climate protection, there is no international policy regime for resource conservation and its societal relevance appears lower than for climate protection. However, scientific findings and political debates are increasingly pointing out that climate protection and resource conservation must be considered together, since interactions can offer both synergies and trade-offs. For example, saving primary raw material use by fostering recycling could help reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions require large quantities of metallic and mineral raw materials whose extraction and production are associated with environmental impacts (e.g., land consumption and environmental pollution due to the extraction of mineral resources as well as energy-intensive processing) and which are partly considered as critical raw materials. Hence, in the context of the nexus of resource conservation and greenhouse gas neutrality, positive and negative effects on resource consumption and energy consumption are equally conceivable.

The G7 and G20 conferences are two multilateral fora for mutual exchange between the world largest economies. For the European Union, the congresses are particularly important to push for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to enhance international environmental protection. In this project, Ecologic Institute supports the European Commission in strengthening the voice of the EU in the negotiations. The team provides expert advice for EU position development on resource efficiency, circular economy, marine waste, plastics and sustainable finance.

At the time of their adoptions, the Water Framework Directive and later on the Floods Directive introduced many new concepts in governance, economic analysis and technical challenges for a sustainable and integrated water resources management. A lot of effort has been put into the development of River Basin Management Plans by Member States and knowledge of water status has considerably improved. Nevertheless, important differences in implementation level across the EU continue to exist and some member states or basins authorities still face difficulties in particular technical areas, which could be discussed with experts from other Member States to find alternative approaches or suggestions for improvement.

Europe's energy sector transformation is now well on its way. Yet, to reach the EU's ambitious decarbonisation target for 2050, more fundamental changes will be required in the energy and transport system after 2020. To provide a solid basis for decision-makers, the Ecologic Institute supports Agora Energiewende in developing a report that delivers a snapshot of how the EU’s energy system could like in 2030. The new report "Big Picture of the European Clean Energy Transition in 2030" builds on the successful German predecessor "Energiewende 2030: The Big Picture". In a concise and accessible fashion, the report specifies key challenges in EU energy policy and shows the way forward towards higher ambition.

In 2018 the "Implications of the Paris Agreement for national climate protection ambition" project is rolled out in support of the Talanoa Dialogue and these 8 countries will be examined carefully: the EU, Germany, China, USA, Canada, Japan, India and Brasil. How are they implementing the Paris Agreement? Can these contributions secure a 1.5-2°C degree world? Who is a climate leader, and who isn't? This new project will shed light on the actual climate impact of said countries mitigation efforts and their level of ambition.

In January 2018 the European Commission adopted an Action Plan to improve compliance with EU environmental rules. Ecologic Institute and its partners support the European Commission in implementing the Action Plan. In particular, the project assists the European Commission in the development of good practice guidance documents on combating environmental crimes, on compliance assurance in rural areas and on handling environmental complaints of citizens as well as with the communication on the Action Plan.