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.

Srebotnjak, Tanja et al. 2015: Methodische Grundlagen des Environment Burden of Disease (EBD)-Ansatzes der WHO zur quantitativen Bewertung von umweltbedingten Krankheitslasten. Chancen, Risiken und Grenzen der Methodik aus naturwissenschaftlicher, rechtlicher und ethischer Perspektive (EBDreview), Dessau-Roßlau. ISSN 1862-4340.

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

The second expert workshop of the discussion series “Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond” dealt with the topic “National mitigation commitments and MRV – The political relevance of technical rules”. The event took place on 23 June 2015in Berlin.

Cities and municipalities play a key role in finding solutions for climate change issues on the local level. A number of research projects already provides best-practice examples and strategies for their implementation. An effective exchange of municipalities facilitates the spread of available knowledge much faster. Within this article Ecologic Institute's Doris Knoblauch, Arne Riedel, and Monica Ridgway discuss the central challenges of both groups and elaborate on the themes and methods used for networking. The article is available for download.

On 9 June 2015, the results of the project "Strategic Development of the National Climate Initiative (NKI)" were discussed at the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) in Berlin. The half-day conference focused on the presentation of the results of the development of the National Climate Initiative as well as on the exchange and networking of high-ranking stakeholders from policy, business, scientific institutions, and civil society.

On 6 June 2015 around 30 representatives and citizens of the municipality of Ahrensfelde joined the Workshop on the Future of Ahrensfelde. The municipality on the periphery of Berlin successfully participated in the "City of the Future" contest funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and is one of 52 German cities that will build a vision of its future this year. The Ecologic Institute and the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde are supporting the vision building process and a potentially following reality lab. Doris Knoblauch moderated the kick-off workshop.

The first expert workshop of the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond" dealt with the topic "Paris 2015 – Signals for non-state actors?" The event took place on 15 April 2015 in Berlin.

Climate change and its impacts are already tangible and necessitate swift and concrete adaptation and mitigation actions. This involves a dual approach, which combats the causes of climate change and also supports society in dealing with a changing climate and its effects. This comprehensive study synthesizes evidence from ecosystem-based projects from across the German-speaking regions of Europe and presents the goals and activities of such projects, their benefits, and the barriers they face. It also develops recommendations for policy makers. The study is available for download.

On 10 April 2015, Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic Institute's legal team, gave a presentation on the relationship between international trade and environmental agreements at a conference of the Protestant Academy Hofgeismar. The conference centered on the topic: "Natural enemies – Environmental protection and free global trade as a legal and political problem." The presentation slides are available for download.