At the kick kick-off event for its six thematic working groups, the dialogue forum "Business Mitigates Climate Change" of around 200 leading German companies discussed how they could increase their climate change mitigation efforts and move forward on the way to a low carbon economy. Ecologic Institute organised the conference together with Ernst & Young and Wuppertal Institut.

The BONARES conference "Soil as a Sustainable Resource" took place in Berlin from 26 to 28 February 2018. Ecologic Institute staff attended the conference and presented the interim results of the Soil³ project – Sustainable Subsoil Management. Dr. Ana Frelih-Larsen, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation on "Social acceptance of measures to improve the subsoil in German agriculture".

Imagine a ceiling panel offering lighting, efficient cooling and improved acoustics all in one. Or an app that calculates the energy use of single appliances in your home as well as the cost of their power consumption at any given moment. And how about an environmentally-friendly process to insulate buildings using digitalization and robotics? These were among the innovations in the running for the PERPETUUM Energy Efficiency Prize. Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute headed the jury to choose the winner of the competition.

Ecologic Institute has been ranked 7th among Top Environment Policy Think Tanks in the 2017 Global Think Tank Ranking of the University of Pennsylvania. Ecologic Institute is proud to be among the Top Ten for the 8th year in a row. The results and the respective report were released on 30 January 2018, with launch events worldwide in over 100 cities. The Berlin launch was hosted by Ecologic Institute and the European Council on Foreign Relations, with support by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

At a time of turbulence and change in the EU, the Tönissteiner Kreis discussed options for "Building green bridges for Europe" at its annual conference. As part of this broad subject, Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute discussed the energy transition, its prospects and international dimensions with Graeme Maxton (General Secretary of the Club of Rome), Martin Kaiser (Executive Director at Greenpeace Germany) and Dr. Markus Hartwig, a green energy entrepreneur.

In January 2018, the Ecologic Institute hosted a group of students from the University of Maryland for a Seminar on Energy, Climate Change and Options for a Low-Carbon Economy. Berlin was the host city for the first leg of the two-week seminar – followed by a week in Venice, hosted by the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change (CMCC). In Berlin, Grit Martinez, R. Andreas Kraemer and Benjamin Görlach taught sessions on the basics of climate change and climate policy, on adaptation to climate change, and on the German energy transition. The course was rounded off with an excursion to Lusatia, a coal mining region southeast of Berlin.

The fruits of Yasmine Ostendorf's Writer-in-Residence term at Ecologic Institute were presented at a festive December evening at Zabriskie Bookshop. The publication "Creative Environment – A guide to art and sustainability initiatives in Berlin" was rolled out to a vibrant group of scientists, artists, curators and the general public. The publication is available online and in hard copy.

Shortly before Christmas 2017, decision makers from the Midwest in the USA and Canada took the opportunity to come to Germany and get a feel for the many different facets and recent developments of German energy policy. The group consisted of US representatives from Illinois, Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as Canadian members of the legislative assembly from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. During the tour, participants were able to meet and engage with representatives from federal ministries and agencies, municipalities, the German parliament, think tanks, as well as businesses and embassies.

On 8 December 2017, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented a comparative overview of climate change laws at state level in Germany at a workshop on the further development of the Climate Change Act for Baden-Württemberg. He focused on common features and differences in the existing climate change acts, and highlighted elements of interest for the amendment of the Climate Change Act for Baden-Württemberg.

Donald Trump's announcement that the USA will pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement triggered the German Federal Agency for Civic Education to put American climate policy on stage in its popular series "What's Up America". Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute, Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer of PIK Potsdam and the New York Times Berlin correspondent Melissa Eddy addressed the reasoning behind this controversial decision and possible consequences.

This side event presents analysis on both long-term climate policy scenario development as well as the respective governance frameworks and discuss it with practitioners involved. Furthermore, case studies from around the world are showcased.

Looking back with a view to the future: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Environmental Ministry in Baden-Wurttemberg, Minister President Kretschmann and Minister for Environment Untersteller together with keynote speakers Prof. Schneidewind (Wuppertal Institute) and Dr. Bausch (Ecologic Institute) highlighted achievements of the past as well as challenges for the future. While past efforts delivered some important results, current and future trends show the need for far-reaching changes in the way we live and do business.

With a big conference in Berlin on the 17 and 18 Oktober 2017, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) launched its new comprehensive research programme "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions." In this research programme, 18 research projects with around 100 partners from science, industry, associations and municipalities are exploring the following questions: What is the extent of plastic pollution globally, what are its causes and its effects? For the kickoff, representatives from all collaborative projects met in the "Umweltforum" in Berlin to present the individual projects, identify common challenges and develop cross-cutting themes for an exchange across consortia.

Ecologic Institute supported the German Environment Agency in hosting the workshop "Decarbonisation – 100 % Renewable Energy and more: Transformation pathways to a greenhouse gas neutral and resource efficient society," which took place on 17 October 2017 in Berlin.

From 15 to 21 October 2017, Ecologic Institute implemented an information visit within the framework of the Visitors Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany on "Post Cop21" – Climate Policy for 2050. Representatives from ministries, Think Tanks, NGOs and journalists were invited to participate on a tour to Berlin, Bonn and the Lusatia region. The objective of the visit was to learn about and discuss the developments of international climate policy and German domestic climate politics in the light of the outcome of the Paris Agreement. The participants of the programme dealt with the results of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and their significance for German policy making.