The current global pandemic presents both risks and opportunities for the transition to a more sustainable future in Europe. At the launch event for the newest report of the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU), Dr. Camilla Bausch discussed the importance of the European Green Deal at this moment of crisis with Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess.

In order to overcome the negative effects of conventional meat consumption, many alternatives are emerging that could offer solutions. But is that really the case? In the webinar "The future of meat: from trend analysis to policy action" Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute and Sylvia Veenhoff from the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) presented and discussed the results of a trend study commissioned by the UBA describing three core trends: artificial meat, plant-based meat and insect food.

In 2009, many countries adopted economic stimulus programs to combat the economic crisis. The United Nations estimated that these programs totaled three trillion Dollar. The Ecologic Institute analyzed the environmental impacts of the 2009 economic stimulus programs in Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria, Slovenia, the USA, China, Japan, South Korea and the measures taken by the EU.

Since December 2019, Ecologic Institute is a member of the PREVENT Waste Alliance. The alliance is a multi-stakeholder exchange and cooperation platform with more than 30 participant organisations from the private sector, academia and civil society, as well as government institutions. All participant organisations are involved in different aspects of waste management and circular economy across entire value chains, with particular focus on plastics and electronic waste.

On 4 March 2020 the European Commission published its proposal for a European climate law. The present Commission proposal raises a number of questions, such as what steering effect can the long-term orientation really achieve or will the climate law effectively close existing gaps in the processes of EU climate policy? Together with experts, we have further explored these questions.

The final event of the dialogue forum "Wirtschaft macht Klimaschutz" took place on 11 March 2020 in Berlin. Over the past two years, representatives from more than 100 companies have jointly developed ideas, projects and concrete steps to promote climate protection in their companies. Organised in five thematic working groups, the Dialogue Forum has brought together climate protection pioneers among German companies and facilitated exchange of ideas across sector boundaries.

In order to determine the acceptance of measures to enhance the subsoil in agriculture, Ecologic Institute organised two stakeholder workshops in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) in March 2020. The first workshop took place on 2 March in Bad Sassendorf (near Soest) and the second on 3 March in Kleve. Both were part of the BonaRes project "Soil³ – Sustainable Subsoil Management", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

On 22 February 2020, Benedict Bueb of Ecologic Institute was invited to speak on Environmental Inequality at the International Alumni Center (iac) of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. During the workshop "Inequality: From grassroots to policy-making" he presented different perspectives on the topic. He highlighted that not only the social effects of environmental changes and environmental policy decisions, but also access to environmental policy decision-making are often very unequally distributed.

Hidden in plain sight, digitalisation has appeared as one – if not the – central force of change in the 21st century. The digital age offers the potential to both enable and radically counteract the socio-ecological transformation. Correspondingly, structuring the digitalisation wave has becomes an important factor for sustainability policy. When used wisely, artificial intelligence (AI) can produce a new level of quality for solution strategies. The question remains: do we require a new collective knowledge-based solution for using AI to address issues of sustainable transformation in organizations, economic systems and infrastructures? The Ecological Research Network (Ecornet) invited the public to discuss this question.

From 10 to 14 February 2020, the five-day PhD-WinterSchool "Plastics in the Environment" of the BMBF research focus "Plastics in the Environment – Sources ● Sinks ● Solutions" took place in Döllnsee, Brandenburg.

Ecologic Institute has been ranked third worldwide among Environment Policy Think Tanks in the University of Pennsylvania's 2019 Global Think Tank Ranking. This marks the 10th consecutive year under the top 10 in this category. Ecologic Institute was also ranked among the Top 10 in the category "Best Quality Assurance and Integrity Policies and Procedures" for the fourth consecutive year.

To mark the launch of the 2019 Global Think Tank Ranking report on 30 January 2020, Ecologic Institute convened and hosted a breakfast discussion of think tankers and policy experts to discuss "The Future of Think Tanks and Policy Advice". The event, co-hosted and sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was part of a worldwide launch of the report in over 130 cities around the world, with over 500 think tanks hosting or co-hosting.

Dr. Camilla Bausch provided live comments for the news service WELT during Ursula von der Leyen's keynote address on the European Green Deal (EGN) at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Von der Leyen presented tenets of the EGN – her key political project as the new EC President. The EGN aims to set a path for a climate neutral economy by 2050.

The WDR reports how Europe can become climate neutral by 2050. Quoting the Ecologic Institute, WDR presents the European Green Deal and an EU climate protection law, two flagship initiatives to make the EU climate neutral by 2050. The German article "Green Deal – "green Europe" not an overnight success" is available for listening on the WDR website until 15 January 2025.