As part of the workshop "Biogas Feed-In", organized by Fraunhofer UMSICHT, Ecologic Institute's Wolfgang Urban gave a speech about "The Legal Framework - Instruments for the Efficient Use of Biomethan". The presentation dealt with political aims regarding renewable energies, results of the monitoring of the Renewable Energies Act and marketing prospects of biomethan. The presentation slides are available for download.

Longer and warmer summers on the German Baltic Sea coast: this is a possible implication of climate change that could certainly also serve as an opportunity for the tourism sector. At the same time however, negative impacts such as increased algae growth are also expected. Communities and stakeholders in the coastal region will have to adapt to these impacts in the near future. In the first RADOST annual report, the RADOST project partners present both impacts and possible adaptation strategies in the fields of coastal protection, tourism, water management and agriculture, ports and marine economy, renewable energy and conservation and land use.

After two years of project work, the second annual report of RADOST (Regional adaption measures for the German Baltic Sea Coast) presents research results and experiences of cooperation with political decision makers in ministries, administrations and communities. The annual report is available for download.

With its rapid economic growth and its rapidly growing energy hunger, the People's Republic of China plays a central role in international climate policy. The emerging economy is now the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. At least at the national level, the Chinese government has declared its intention to fight climate change. China implemented a series of measures on energy efficiency, energy saving and renewable energies and was able to reduce energy intensity of its economy by 20% in the past five years (according to own data). This is in line with the last five-year plan. The country also is the world's biggest producer of wind turbines and solar cells. But despite these successes and despite still moderate per capita emissions, China's total energy consumption and emissions continue to rise rapidly.

The report provides an overview of the environmental relevance of the largest fields of expenditure within the EU budget. It assesses the sustainability level of key budget items in the EU sectoral policies. It also provides recommendations in the context of a potential reform of subsidies that would contribute to the alignment of the EU budget towards a more sustainable growth as called in the EU 2020 Strategy.

During the "E-World" event in Essen, Ecologic Institute's Wolfgang Urban gave a speech on the role of biomethan for the Federal Government's Energy Concept 2050. After shortly introducing the use options of biomethan, he presented political goals in this field, especially the Energy Concept 2050. In addition, he highlighted the possible contribution of biomethan to the achievement of these goals. Wolfgang Urban concluded his speech with suggestions for incentive tools regarding power and heat. The presentation slides are available for download.

This book presents a practical method to carry out a cost-benefit analysis in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Disproportionally high costs of measures can hinder the achievement of the "good ecological status". With the help of the presented method, the proportionality of the costs can be reviewed with low effort.

Although there are many information and data on the environmental and climate impact of consumption and production, it is difficult to evaluate their role and their connections in the overall picture. In this study, different quality requirements for environmental information are defined and compared by using the concept of the "True and Fair View."

In order to achieve the aims of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in German river basin districts, comprehensive and cost-intensive measures are necessary. In the case of disproportionally high costs, exceptions regarding deadlines and environmental objectives are possible. Using the cost-benefit-analysis that is presented in this manual, these disproportionalities can be identified.

In this paper, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, one of the founders and a Partner of Ecologic Institute, investigates the nature of the European Union’s relations to third countries with regard to renewable sources of energy and the options available for further developing those relations in order to more effectively exploit the potential of renewable energy. While the EU has the potential to cover its electrical power needs from renewable sources alone, cooperation with third states in the use of renewable energy sources will play an important role – as can be seen in the large-scale Desertec project.

As one of its key features, the Kyoto Protocol introduced market mechanisms in order to achieve climate targets at lowest cost. Instruments like emission trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation have established markets for emission reductions worldwide. These instruments owe their existence to the Kyoto Protocol. However, the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and the prospects for an immediate successor agreement remain bleak. The 16th edition of Climate Talk discussed what this situation entails for the market mechanisms, and what measures the affected firms can take to deal with the uncertain outlook.

Do the National Renewable Energy Action Plans concerning Member States' goals for 2020 address the long-term restructuring of electricity generation? Do they consider possibilities for European cooperation? Dr. Stephan Sina and Katharina Umpfenbach of the Ecologic Institute examined these questions in their analysis of the German Renewable Energy Action Plan commissioned by the European Green Foundation.