<img alt="lee lane" hspace="2" src="downloads/dinner_dialogue/2005/lee_lane_II_80_80.jpg" align="right" vspace="2" border="0" />US energy and climate policy was the topic of the Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honor of Lee Lane, Executive Director of the Climate Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The event participants discussed the possibility of and need for an effective US climate policy, in light of the developments at the sub-national, federal and international levels. This Transatlantic Climate Dinner took place on 14 December 2005 in Berlin.

The newly introduced law on project-based mechanisms (ProMechG), which entered into force 30 September 2005, was the topic of the Climate Talk on 12 December 2005. At the event the new cooperation partner for the Climate Talk, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), was introduced. At DIW's offices in Berlin-Dahlem, the participants vividly discussed the ProMechG and its implications for businesses.

On 8 December 2005 the German Associaton for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) organised an expert meeting entitled "25 years of practical experience with Waste Water Charges". Presentations and discussions centered on whether to abolish, keep or modify the Waste Water Charge. Ecologic Policy Advisor Peter Kessler spoke on "Waste water charges and the Water Framework Directive – What does the Directive require?". He argued that an abolishment without substition of the Waste Water Charge would violate the principle of cost recovery (environmental costs) of Art. 9 of the Directive.

All companies which dispose of IPPC installations must meet the requirements of the Directive by the 30 October 2007.  The central purpose of the event is to provide the entrepreneurs concerned with the basic knowledge which is necessary for the fulfilment of the requirements of the Directive.

The protection and management of water resources at the river basin scale is gaining in importance world-wide. Only through careful and sustainable management can the current water problems be addressed, particularly in developing countries. The Nile River with its ten riparian states is like no other basin faced with specific challenges in terms of reaching integrated water resource management. On invitation of the German Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (gtz) and the German Ministry for Development and Co-operation, experts and decision-makers from the Nile riparian states visited several German and European water management institutions on 23 November 2005 and came together with Ecologic staff to exchange thoughts and ideas on experiences with the water management challenge in Europe and Africa.

Debates and discussions are still taking place on the aims of the European Commission as regards the strengthening of competition in the water sector. The question is: What would the consequences be for the German water and wastewater sector, if water provision was to be increasingly subjected to competition, public procurement and internal market rules?

During an international capacity-building workshop for participants from Central and Eastern Europe which was convened from 29 September to 1 October 2005, Nicole Kranz discussed the application of a valuation of ecosystem services for the implementation of the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD).

The event will be directed towards stakeholders in new and old Member States and will focus on the implementation of Directive 96/61/EC on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC). It will provide a forum for an exchange of experiences and views on the implementation of the Directive, the use of the reference documents on best available techniques (BREFs) and the future development of the Directive.

“Engaging the Climate Behemoths: Transforming Energy Policy in America and China” was the topic of the Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honour of William K. Reilly, co-chair of the US National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP). The challenges for China’s coal driven energy sector as well as for the US, considering not only energy and climate protection needs but also the wish for economic growth, were discussed in the light of the new proposals of the NCEP. This Transatlantic Climate Dinner Dialogue took place on 6 September 2005 in Berlin.

In recent years, the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) has emerged as an increasingly important instrument of EU governance. Rather than relying on legally binding rules, the OMC works through the diffusion and evaluation of information. On 2 September 2005 Ingmar von Homeyer, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the application of the OMC in EU environmental policy at a workshop organised by the German Federal Office for Building and Spatial Planning (BBR) in Bonn.

The new National Climate Protection Program, as agreed upon by the federal government on 13 July, was the subject of the "Climate Talk" on 13 August 2005. Experts from business, science and politics discussed the economic and political meaning of the program, particularly against the backdrop of emissions trading, Germany's (formerly) leading role in climate protection and Germany's 2012-emissions-reduction-goals. Presentations were given by Astrid Harnisch (Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Protection, BMU), Regine Günther (WWF) and Sven Reinhardt (CDU/CSU-faction).

The worldwide emergence of public policy research organizations has occurred only recently. Compared to the US, the concept of "think tanks" is relatively new in Germany, and there are only a very limited number of institutions active in policy research and policy consulting. On 12 August 2005 Markus Knigge, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation at the Bucerius Summer School on how Ecologic – one of the few German think tanks – contributes to environmental policy making on the German, European and international level.

Local and regional institutions are essential for effectively tackling local environmental problems and for implementing policies that address global environmental challenges. In recent years, a number of transatlantic partnerships between regional and local institutions have evolved in order to change information and best practices in the environmental policy area. The Heinrich Boell Foundation organised an informal dinner on 12 July 2005 during which Ecologic Fellow Markus Knigge gave a speech on the role, the functioning and the effectiveness of transatlantic environmental partnerships, and discussed his findings with the participants present.

The international workshop "Implementing the Economic Aspects of the WFD – Future Challenges in the Elbe River Basin" took place in Leipzig on 7 and 8 July 2005 and was mainly organised by Ecologic Associate Britta Pielen. In the course of the workshop, Benjamin Görlach gave an overview of the Member States' current approaches to assessing disproportionate costs in implementing the European Water Framework Directive.