The Canadian province of Alberta is well-known for being the home of the country’s current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the infamous tar sands. The traditionally conservative province has been criticized for its contribution to climate change. Binnu Jeyakumar, Consulting Advisor at Pembina Institute, led a discussion on this topic at Ecologic Institute. The seminar focused on the current political change in Alberta and its implications for the province’s involvement in the fight against climate change.

Ecologic Institute would like to issue a warm welcome to our newest Shareholder, Willem van Rijn.
 Willem van Rijn added his expertise to the Ecologic Institute Board of Shareholders in 2015. He brings with him a wealth of experience in international finance and consulting as well as a well-honed background in strategy and risk management. Willem van Rijn is currently active as an investor, advisor and board member at various institutions.

On 7 July 2015, the POLIMP Webinar Series officially kicked off with a discussion on the topic: "Paris 2015: Lessons from the Copenhagen Experience. The webinar featured guest speakers Prof. Dr. Sebastian Oberthür (IES) and Wytze van der Gaast, PhD (JIN).

Using a combination of web-based tools, the POLIMP project imparts expert knowledge on international climate negotiations and EU climate policy. Through the distribution of regular surveys to POLIMP's "Expert Response Group," opinions on key topics and recent developments in international climate negotiations are identified. The survey results are then shared in the POLIMP live webinar series.

After almost two years of work led by Ecologic Institute on the project NETwork for GREEN Economy Indicators (NETGREEN), the initiative's main output was unveiled: a database for Green Economy indicators. Actually, this product was a multifunctional tool rather than a simple database. The tool helped to identify and understand the best indicators to measure progress towards the green economy. Therefore, it was useful for policy-makers and people trying to influence them. This initiative was of significant interest for the Directorate-General for Environment, as can be seen in an interview with the NETGREEN project team. The interview is available online.

The Arctic Summer College is proud to have recently completed its fifth successful year. From 25 June to 13 August 13, the 20 selected Arctic Summer College Fellows participated in eight webinars on various topics relevant to the Arctic, including Indigenous Actors and Arctic Decision-making, Arctic Energy and Climate Change Adaptation. Fellows became part of a network of emerging Arctic leaders from different disciplines and regions and were able to share and discuss ideas with expert speakers.

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.

In the debates about the new climate and energy framework for 2030 and the proposed Energy Union, the European Commission and the Council call for increased regional cooperation between Member States. In addition to strengthening the internal market, this cooperation is meant to facilitate the implementation of the EU 2030 energy efficiency and renewable targets. Both are defined for the Union as a whole, but not for single Memeber States. On 17 June 2015, Katharina Umpfenbach presented the working paper "Regional cooperation in the context of the new 2030 energy governance" in Berlin that takes a closer look at the existing landscape of regional institutions in the European electricity sector to explore their potential contribution to an effective furture governance framework. The presentation is available for download.

Three leading Australian journalists participated in a study tour on "Climate and Energy Policy in Germany" in Berlin, from 13 until 18 June 2015. Ecologic Institute designed and organised the tour on behalf of the Foreign Office.

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.

From 1 June to 11 June 2015, the meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies for the UN climate negotiations in the lead up to COP21 took place in Bonn (Germany). Members of the CECILIA2050 consortium hosted a side event entitled "Improving Europe's Climate Policy Toolbox to Reach the 2050 Low-Carbon Targets: Insights from the CECILIA2050 Project."

Multiple international environmental agreements govern countries' treatment and protection of their natural resources and environment. The treaties have different requirements for the Parties to report on the implementation, e.g., regulations, policies, strategies, etc. However, to date there has been no comprehensive assessment regarding implementation of these agreements on the national level. The Global Environmental Governance Project, spearheaded by Prof. Dr. Maria Ivanova, Associate Professor of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston, aims to fill this knowledge gap.

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.

R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute, begins an 18-month fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany, during which he will work on a research project on "Thinktanking in Theory and Practice". Among other things, he investigates internal management and professional development in this sector, as well as transdisciplinary methods like those used by the IASS and other institutes. The results of this research will feed into different activities and publications.

Through which global political approaches can a (more) sustainable land use be reached? Over the last four years, the GLOBALANDS project team has attempted to answer this primary research question. On 19 May 2015, the final conference of the project took place at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the project results related to global governance of urban-rural relations. All presentations are available on the GLOBALANDS website.