Since 2017, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has been operating the Internet platform of the Round Table on Marine Litter at www.muell-im-meer.de. The main objective of the platform is to provide organisational support for the German Roundtable on Marine Litter and its working groups, in particular by providing a password-protected member area. In addition, the public part of the platform serves public relations work and the bundling of information on marine litter. In this project the Ecologic Institute was responsible for the further development, relaunch, operation, technical maintenance and hosting of the internet platform. Ecologic Institute created and implemented a development guide on structural and functional changes for the internet platform.

From 22 to 28 September 2019, the Energy Future Exchange (EFEX) Program invites civil society leaders from the EU and US to join the EFEX Study Tour and experience the Future of Energy.

The new President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has promised a European climate law. What it should look like describe Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Katharina Umpfenbach in the Tagesspiegel. The law should close five gaps.

Societal transformations are often initiated by individuals. This also applies to the sustainable economy issue: There are particularly committed people behind many smaller and larger developments that have been set in motion in recent years. Some of these "change agents" who were involved in projects of the "Scientific coordination of research projects on a sustainable economy" (NaWiKo) have been presented as part of the project's dissemination work.

The aim of this project is to promote the international dissemination of knowledge about emissions trading systems, to provide practical experience from Europe and Germany and to support countries in setting up a national emissions trading system. Hence, existing teaching materials on emissions trading will be updated and expanded, new teaching modules on other topics will be developed, and network meetings, workshops and information events (e.g. side events, trade fairs) with experts will be held. In addition, foreign governments and government-related institutions will be supported on special topics by practical assignments of experts at home and abroad. The experience gained in Germany and the EU, relevant knowledge and "good practice" can thus be passed on to interested countries.

In this EFEX webinar Marijke de Roeck, lead project coordinator of the CIVITAS Portis initiative and Katia Kishchenko, local dissemination manager, discussed sustainable mobility in the city of Antwerp (Belgium). Their presentation touched on the importance of improving cooperation between relevant bodies – in the case of Antwerp, the port and municipal authorities – as well as the city's growing experience with shared mobility services. They also discussed major findings of the CIVITAS Portis project regarding transport choices and behavioral change. The webinar was moderated by Matthias Duwe, Head Climate at Ecologic Institute.

This brochure is a 'light' version of Eurostat's publication 'Sustainable development in the European Union – 2019 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context', conveying its main messages in a visual and concise way. The brochure provides an updated snapshot of the current situation concerning 100 indicators related to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). It thus provides a snapshot of the key trends related to sustainable development in the European Union. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.

This publication is the third of Eurostat's regular reports monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an EU context. The monitoring report provides a statistical presentation of trends relating to the SDGs in the EU over the past five years ('short-term') and, when sufficient data is available, over the past 15 years ('long-term'). Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.

This report arises from the European Commission's Environmental Implementation Review process, a biennial assessment of Member State performance on implementation of EU environmental law and policy. It addresses an issue identified in the 2017 review as a root cause of implementation weaknesses; poor environmental governance. The authors from IEEP, Ecologic Institute and the Central European University outline the development of, and the rationale for, a standard assessment template, the Environmental Governance Assessment (EGA).

In June 2019, the stakeholder workshop "Optimal soil management to ensure yield capacity & acceptance analysis of measures to upgrade the subsoil" of the BMBF-funded BonaRes project "Soil³ – Sustainable Subsoil Management" took place in Moltzow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). This workshop is part of a series of workshops with the aim to discuss and gather the prevailing opinions on subsoil management measures with the help of an acceptance analysis. Ecologic Institute researchers discussed with farmers and other ecological actors under which conditions they would implement or support these measures.

The Ecologic Institute organised in June 2019 the two-day Future Workshop of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) on Floodplains and River Development as Future Tasks for Departmental Research. The BfN introduced the instrument of future workshops in 2015 in order to determine and discuss medium- and long-term research needs in selected topic areas on an annual basis. The main target is the exchange between research institutions, operators and users of research results with the specialist departments of the BfN.

Ecologic Institute researchers presented interim results of the project: CO-designing the Assessment of Climate Change Costs (COACCH) at the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA) 2019 in Lisbon (Portugal). The presentations covered first experiences from the COACCH Co-Design process, as well as a recently prepared synthesis of Economic costs of climate change and adaptation in Europe.

Environmental journalism has always been a cross-cutting topic. There are journalists in many countries who specialise in environmental topics. However, environmental topics mostly do not have their own department at media outlets. Hence, publishing such media pieces often highly depends on current political processes and above all on current, public discussions. Ecologic Institute's Marius Hasenheit discussed the role of media, especially social media, in communicating environmental issues in Egypt, at the 61st Cairo Climate Talks.

The project supported the preparatory process for a new ISO guidance for environmental management in the water sector. Experts were asked in an international workshop whether such an ISO guideline could usefully supplement the existing ISO standards and should be introduced. As a result of the project, a unanimous, positive vote from the experts could be passed on to the ISO decision-makers. Subsequently, the decision-makers agreed to set up an appropriate working group to develop the guideline.

Climate planning for 2050 has become a core strand of debate in the European Union. Focus has shifted to a potential revision of the EU's long-term climate objectives within the context of a new 2050 strategy, which is to be submitted to the United Nations under the Paris Agreement by 2020. In parallel, all EU Member States must develop national strategies of their own, albeit with little central guidance and no overarching structure in place for collaboration.