From urban gardening and networks of sharing to community-owned wind farms: citizens' initiatives emerge all over Europe in a quest to find new answers to today's pressing challenges. This policy brief explores new forms of cooperation between local governments and these bottom-up initiatives. It argues that getting involved with initiatives helps local governments to be an active player in their community's change dynamics. This cooperation furthermore requires new ways of engaging and participating between the groups.

How can energy efficiency contribute to a successful "Energiewende" in Germany? Hans-Joachim Ziesing, Associate at Ecologic Institute, discusses this question in his article "Energy saving and energy efficiency in Germany" in the 2013 issue of the "Yearbook Ecology". He describes the "Energiewende" as a decision stemming from societal and political consensus in Germany. Its implementation, however, remains unclear. In a " Energy Efficiency Key Issues Report", the federal government addresses this issue: besides the promotion of Renewable Energy, more energy efficiency is necessary to successfully implement the "Energiewende".

The German Resource Efficiency Program (ProgRess) must be considered a milestone in national resource policy. However, scientific findings point to a need to further develop ProgRess in the next legislative period in order to enhance its effectiveness. Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers was co-author of a brief scientific perspective on this issue. The third PolRess Policy Paper is available for download.

The RADOST Report No. 19 deals with international case studies of climate adaptation. For each of the six RADOST focus topics (coastal protection, tourism and beach management, water management and agriculture, ports and maritime economy, conservation and land use and renewable energies) and accompanied by the topics planning and participation, three adaptation examples are presented.

You may have read in the press about medicines, like antibiotics and the pill, being found in rivers and lakes, and even in drinking water. Is this true? How do drugs get there, and do they have effects? Is there anything being done to address this? Can I do anything to help?

Werde, Julia; Ulrich Braukmann and Ulf Stein 2013: "Untersuchungen der Auswirkungen von Klimaveränderungen auf die Lebensgemeinschaften wirbelloser Tiere in Fließgewässern im Nationalpark Kellerwald-Edersee (Hessen, Deutschland)", in: Ute Feit and Horst Korn (eds.): Treffpunkt Biologische Vielfalt XII. Aktuelle Forschung im Rahmen des Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt vorgestellt auf einer wissenschaftlichen Expertentagung an der Internationalen Naturschutzakademie Insel Vilm vom 20.-24. August 2012. [BfN-Skripten 335]. Bonn - Bad Godesberg: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, 39-46.

In this policy paper, a group of young researchers, among them Ecologic Institute's Holger Gerdes, provides possibilities and suggestions for a transformation of the approach taken in Germany towards ecosystem services, which should allow for the integration of this concept into relevant policy areas and cross-cutting issues. The policy paper is available for download.

During this 6th Biogas workshop Dr. Wolfgang Urban, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the current state, objectives, and procedures on the way to the revised Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2.0). He described the challenges within the energy transition process and possible prospects of bioenergies. The presentation slides are available for download.

In the medium-term, biomass is expected to be an important part of the German energy mix. In this journal article, Ecologic Institute's Wolfgang Urban and Michael Jandewerth (Fraunhofer UMSICHT) present the results of the project "Biogas Feed-In" which was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The focus lies on the question of how processed biogas can be fed into the natural gas network under concrete local conditions. The article, which has been published in "Informationen zur Raumentwicklung", is available for download.

Dr. Wolfgang Urban, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, hold a presentation at the fourth expert dialogue "Gas Infrastructure for the Future", organized by the Technologiestiftung Berlin (TSB). He described the current state of the energy transition process in Germany – the so-called Energiewende - and explained the further steps of the German Federal Government. Additionally, he exemplified the challenges in the energy market namely flexibility options, wind and solar energy in the transformation process as well as the role of natural gas infrastructure and natural gas as energy source. The presentation is available for download.