"Opportunities for and barriers to German-French contributions to the Climate Conference in Paris" was the topic of a panel discussion on 16 October 2015. The German-French association Gerhard Kiersch Verein / AGKV organized the event. The discussion addressed the question of how Germany and France could contribute to the success of the global climate conference and which obstacles still need to be overcome.

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer (MCC) and Hildegard Müller (BDEW) extended an invitation for 15 October 2015 to discuss the topic "The Climate Conference in Paris – and then?" Franziska Erdle (WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle), Dr. Camilla Bausch (Ecologic Institute) and Christoph Bals (Germanwatch) provided commentary to the introductory talks of Edenhofer and Müller.

To mark the occasion of Ecologic Institute's 20th anniversary, this infographic provides a look behind the scenes and introduces some of the people who make up the heart and soul of the Institute. The infographic was developed, designed and implemented by Ecologic Institute's staff members.

Ecologic Institute celebrated 20 years of successful environmental research and policy consulting with a podium discussion, improvisational theatre, and a festive reception in Berlin. To further mark the occasion of our anniversary, we presented an infographic providing a peek behind the scenes and introducing the people working at Ecologic Institute. More information and photos of the celebration, the infographic and the 20 messages of greeting sent from Germany, Europe and beyond can be found in the further links.

Investor protection and arbitration courts may be the most controversial topics during the present TTIP negotiations. In light of this public debate, the European Commission presented its first proposal for the reform of TTIP investor protection in May 2015. The proposal includes broad reforms concerning the allocation of arbitration courts as well as the challenge of arbitral awards. Further proposals have been made by the European Parliament in July 2015. In spring 2015, social democratic ministers from different EU countries brought a permanent international court house for investment disputes up for discussion. A reform of the international investment protection regime has already been in discussion for some time. The EU Commission plans to present a concrete proposal for the ISDS reform in the coming weeks.

In the project "Scientific coordination of research projects on a sustainable economy" (Wissenschaftliche Koordination der Fördermaßnahme Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften, NaWiKo) Ecologic Institute and its partners coordinate 30 research projects, which deal with a more sustainable economy and are supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the project's website. It contains an interactive map, which gives an overview of all funded projects. Furthermore the webpage provides detailed information on the projects and related events as well as publications for download. User can also directly subscribe for the newsletter.

Learning everything from books? Not at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen which emphasizes the incorporation of practical knowledge into students’ academic routine. It provides students with added value as it illustrates future career opportunities. Therefore, Doris Knoblauch and Evelyn Lukat, senior fellow and researcher at Ecologic Institute, organized the seminar "Think Tank Policy Consulting" in 2015/2016. It was the sixth time that the seminar was held by employees of Ecologic Institute.

At the 10th German Climate Conference, Dr. Grit Martinez (Ecologic Institute) gave an overview of how the consequences of climate change have been addressed by human society during the past decades. Meanwhile, there is a prevailing consensus that both deep-rooted climate change mitigation efforts and adaptation measures are necessary to prevent a climatic change with unmanageable consequences. The presentation is available for download.

In the "Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations," a group of high-level lawyers and philosophers addresses obligations of States and enterprises to avert the critical level of climate change – irrespective of already existing obligations resulting from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or a (potential) follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The group argues that existing legal sources including human rights law, environmental law and tort law oblige states to take measures leading to drastic emissions reductions that ensure that the global temperature increase does not exceed pre-industrial temperatures by more than 2°C.

Marius Hasenheit, Junior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, wrote an article about the interactive search engine "measuring-progress.eu" for Green Economy Indictors for the online magazine RESET. To draw interest of people who are not often dealing with Green Economy Indicators, on this topic, he described the project in a vivid and way. In this context he depicted the relevance of indicators in most of the fields of environmental policy and furthermore invited the readers to try out the tool and provide feedback.

The third expert workshop of the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond" dealt with the topic "Conditional INDCs – A new and unknown element of the Paris-System." The event took place on 9 September 2015 in Berlin.

The Yearbook Ecology 2016 was published in August. Ecologic Institute is one of the institutes supporting this yearbook.

Marius Hasenheit, Junior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, wrote an article for the German online magazine Wirtschaftswoche Green Economy about the interactive search engine für Green Economy Indicators "measuring-progress.eu". In his article, he also interviewed Katharina Stepping of the German Development Institute (DIE), who already tested the tool.

REFRESH was a project aiming at the reduction of avoidable food waste and improved valorization of food resources in Europe. Through conducting research and initiating pilot projects in different countries REFRESH developed solutions for consumers, businesses and policy makers. The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the project's website.

Hirschnitz-Garbers, M. und Langsdorf, S. (2015): Informationskampagnen für Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten – Effekte und Ausrichtungen. Vertiefungsanalyse 4 im Projekt Ressourcenpolitik: Analyse der ressourcenpolitischen Debatte und Entwicklung von Politikoptionen (PolRess). www.ressourcenpolitik.de