On 16 and 17 August 2022, the 3rd International Forum on Urbanism – Portoviejo Vision 2035, for urban development and design of cities on a human scale with a focus on climate change, was held in the Las Vegas Park in the city of Portoviejo. Natalia Burgos Cuevas, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, was invited as keynote speaker to talk about on the promotion of nature-based solutions in Latin America drawing on the insights gathered from the Urban Governance Atlas, developed in INTERLACE.

On 7 October 2019, Eurostat published its most recent flagship publication "Smarter, greener, more inclusive?". The report assesses the EU's progress in implementing the Europe 2020 strategy. Commissioned by Eurostat, Katharina Umpfenbach and Amely Gundlach of Ecologic Institute edited the chapter on climate change and energy. It discusses progress towards the so-called 20-20-20 targets which aim at cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable energy supply, and improving energy efficiency. The publication is available for download.

On 21 October 2019, the event "Re-Use Berlin – neue Perspektiven für Gebrauchtwaren" (new perspectives for used goods) took place from 6 to 9 PM in Berlin's Urania. Ambassadors of reusing from Berlin presented their "stories" and visions, while business, administration and civil society representatives discussed existing approaches and sustainable ideas. 100 people participated in the event.

On 15 October 2019 the experts' workshop within the context of the project "Improving Financial Security in the Context of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD)" will take place in Brussels. The workshop will first offer an overview of the current situation of financial security for ELD liabilities in the Member States. The project team will then present options for financial security, which will be discussed in a World Café session in the afternoon, thus offering a chance for debate and exchange of ideas.

While Greta Thunberg was delivering her impassioned speech at the UN Climate Action Summit and during a time in which Germany occupies a seat in the UN Security Council, the Study Group on Strategic Issues of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) discussed the climate-security nexus. Dr. Camilla Bausch (Ecologic Institute) contributed her insights on the interface between climate and security, how it is addressed in the international climate context and highlighted some policy recommendations.

The IPCC published a special report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) in August 2019. The report shows that climate change is increasing pressure on land systems. At the same time, however, land systems also play an important role in climate protection, for example through the preservation of ecosystems, more sustainable agriculture and forestry, more climate-friendly diets and the avoidance of food wastage.

Consumption levels of meat are high in Germany and increasingly become the subject of controversial public debates around environmental problems, health effects, animal welfare and the climate impact of food and diets. In this context, meat alternatives are discussed as an alternative. At the expert workshop "Meat of the Future" on 17 September in Berlin, it was discussed what role these trends and products (more specifically vegetable substitutes, insects and meat produced in-vitro) can play for sustainable diets which environmental policy options exist for shaping these trends.

The objective of this project is to support DG Climate Action (European Commission) in its assessment of Member States’ key challenges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and related policies recently put into place. The information should also help DG CLIMA in enhancing the role of climate policies in the European Semester. With this project, Ecologic Institute continues the work in this field since 2012.

This infographic visualises the evaluation results of various measures to promote electric vehicles. It specifies the corresponding measures and illustrates the evaluation criteria. The infographic is licensed under a Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.0, i. e. it can be used without any changes, if the author is mentioned.

The project "Trend Analysis: Meat of the Future" analyses the development trends of meat substitutes, analyses which effects can be expected from a market expansion of meat substitute products and identifies approaches through policy and research to reduce negative environmental impacts. The scope of the trend analysis includes three kind of meat substitutes: plant based substitutes, insects and in-vitro meat.

In September 2019, the European Commission organized the 'European Research & Innovation Days' to shape the EU's future research and innovation policy. Holger Gerdes, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, had been invited to take part in a panel discussion, which focused on the challenges and potentials of bio-based products and innovations. The video recordings from the session can be watched online.

In this chapter Ewa Iwaszuk, Linda Mederake and Doris Knoblauch (all Ecologic Institute) analyse the extent to which municipal long-term climate strategies contain formulations and measures aimed at promoting urban transformative change (defined as non-linear change for sustainability that profoundly transforms cities and the systems they form part of). The methodology is applied to the strategies of three cities from around the world (Austin, Texas, USA; Berlin, Germany; Melbourne, Australia) to understand the extent to which the visions outlined in these local-level strategies can be said to be transformative.

On 10 September 2019, the final conference of the project "Mikroplastik im Wasserkreislauf" (Microplastics in the Water Cycle, MaWi for short) took place in Karlsruhe. The project results were presented and discussed at the event. A poster exhibition was also organized as part of the conference. Some of the posters are available on the event website.

While hardly anyone would argue against the importance of cities and local governments in the implementation of climate policies, what remains contested is their role in the international climate regime. This analysis by Ecologic Institute uncovers how the activities of cities and transnational city networks, which have been evolving over the years, have gradually broadened the international climate regime, although cities are not subjects of international law. The analysis is available for download.

Climate change and artificial intelligence (AI) are two intensely debated topics, but mostly treated by separate communities. While climate change is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges the world is facing, AI is creating new opportunities for all sectors, including science. On the occasion of European Climate Diplomacy Week 2019, the German Federal Foreign Office, the British Embassy in Germany and the French Embassy in Germany would like to discuss the conceivable potentials and synergies. Ecologic Institute's Matthias Duwe moderates the discussion.