The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety has commissioned Prognos AG and Ecologic Institute with a project assessing the interdependencies between climate protection measures and policies and gas infrastructure planning in Europe. As part of the project Ecologic Institute is conducting a process analysis of gas infrastructure planning in Europe and six selected Member States. Ecologic Institute will also conduct an analysis of political, social, economic and technical risks related to the application of low-carbon alternatives to gas infrastructure development, including energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Ecologic Institute prepared and organised a full-day workshop with around 100 European and international experts and decision makers from natural and social sciences, politics, business, civil society and the media, discussing the topic "Decarbonisation – 100% Renewable Energy and more." The workshop, which took place on 9 November 2015, fostered the dialogue between international and European partners to launch a debate on how greenhouse gas neutrality can be achieved in different EU Member States.

The research project analyses and evaluates 2050 climate protection scenarios for different Member States of the European Union. The aim is to trigger a debate how to achieve a transformation towards a sustainable and low-carbon economy in the European Union.

This project, led by Ecologic Institute, aims to take stock of existing soil policy instruments in the EU in order to identify gaps in protection and to support the decision-making process for further policy action. Collaborating closely with experts from 28 EU Member States, the project develops a Wiki-based inventory and an up-to-date assessment of soil policy instruments in the EU. The inventory consists of existing and upcoming policy instruments, including legislation, regulatory and non-binding instruments, measures and targets in the EU Member States and its regions. In an ex-ante and ex-post impact analyses, the effectiveness of soil policy instruments in addressing the soil threats and soil functions in the EU as well as the relevance and coherence of policies is assessed.

In order to foster waste prevention, article 29 of the European Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EG requires Member States to lay down national waste prevention programmes, specifying appropriate benchmarks for waste prevention measures. It enables Member States to make use of concrete quantitative and qualitative indicators (see also § 33 III 4 KrWG). In July 2013, the federal government adopted a national waste prevention programme. The government is now tasked to monitor the programme's implementation.

The pending transformation of the German and European electricity system resulting from rising shares of renewable energy is triggering new technical requirements for both electricity producers and consumers. These requirements include "network codes", bodies of technical rules for the operation of electricity grids, which are developed by the European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) in their umbrella organization ENTSO-E before being implemented on the national level in the EU Member States.

In this joint project commissioned by the European Environment Agency, the team at Ecologic Institute evaluates both technical aspects (e.g. cost-effectiveness) and implementation dimensions (e.g. barriers and enabling factors) of water demand management practices in Europe. The assessment focuses on measures implemented in Cyprus, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Romania and Sweden. It also aims to update the knowledge on price elasticity of water demand via 10 case studies conducted at the local (water operator) scale. The countries covered in the case studies are the same as above plus the UK. The aim: to assess how EU Member States are already applying price and non-price measures to manage water demand, and to understand how such implementations can help take the EU further along the pathway to a sustainable future.

In this project for the ENVI Comittee of the European Parliament (EP), Grazia Maria Vagliasindi, University of Catania, and Christiane Gerstetter, Ecologic Institute, wrote a briefing on the ILVA steel plant Taranto, Italy and its environmental and health impacts. The steel plant is the largest one in the EU; the case illustrates the consequences of companies failing to comply with applicable permits and environmental legislation, and national authorities failing to enforce environmental standards.

The Baltic Sea is subject to intense shipping, leading to significant affects on the marine environment. Awareness about the potential impacts from shipping on the Baltic Sea is increasing while the contribution of shipping to the total pressure on the marine environment is not well understood. There is a need for increased scientific knowledge about these potential with respect to improving ship performance, increasing numbers of ships, and the use of measures to tackle this policy challenge.

Knowledge, Assessment, and Management for AQUAtic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aCROSS EU policies (AQUACROSS) aims to support EU efforts to protect aquatic biodiversity and ensure the provision of aquatic ecosystem services. Funded by Europe's Horizon 2020 research programme, AQUACROSS seeks to advance knowledge and application of ecosystem-based management (EBM) for aquatic ecosystems to support the timely achievement of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy targets.

To ensure that the EU meets or potentially overachieves its 2030 energy and climate targets and embarks on a decarbonisation trajectory that is consistent its 2050 objective, an effective and robust governance system is of key importance. Given the diversity of interests among EU Member States, there is a need for innovative thinking on how to design effective approaches that can secure consent in the EU policy-making process.
 To contribute to this debate, Ecologic Institute develops policy advice on the potential for streamlining existing planning and reporting requirements in the energy and climate policy field while improving their quality and consistency. Moreover, the team is analysing the relationship between the current and likely future reporting requirements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the EU's internal governance system.

The Ecologic Institute together with York university and Faust & Backhaus developed proposals on how to take better account of environmental risks in the authorisation decisions for veterinary pharmaceuticals. The project team assessed different regulations for chemicals and analysed what methods or procedures would be applicable in veterinary pharmaceuticals. Actions to risk reduction and substitution decisions had been assessed.

Ecologic Institute contributed key components of a comprehensive review of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as part of a consortium of institutions who specialise in environmental policy. The review informs a stakeholder process for improving the EU ETS that is part of Europe's "climate and energy package 2030."

The overall objective of the project is to support the European Commission in assessing, programming, implementing and monitoring technology development and demonstration options for wind energy. The focus is on the reduction of the short and medium term costs for both on- and offshore wind electricity, as well as on the integration in the EU's smart electricity networks. In the context of this project, Ecologic Institute develops strategies and solutions for the uptake of new wind energy technologies on the basis of an assessment of possible barriers resulting from non-technological and environmental impacts of these technologies focusing on their cost aspects.

This project was carried out by Ecologic Institute and UCL Centre for Law and the Environment for the EU's Committee of the Regions (CoR). It informed the CoR's ex-post Territorial Impact Assessment on Natura 2000 and the EU Birds and Habitats Directives in light of the European Commission's Fitness Check of the Directives ('REFIT'). The final report "Implementation of Natura 2000 and the Habitats and Birds Directives" is available for download.