AQUACROSS seeks to advance knowledge and application of ecosystem-based management (EBM) for aquatic ecosystems to support the timely achievement of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy targets. The AQUACROSS newsletter delivers insights and shares developments within the Horizon 2020 research project.

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 2018 the "Implications of the Paris Agreement for national climate protection ambition" project is rolled out in support of the Talanoa Dialogue and these 8 countries will be examined carefully: the EU, Germany, China, USA, Canada, Japan, India and Brasil. How are they implementing the Paris Agreement? Can these contributions secure a 1.5-2°C degree world? Who is a climate leader, and who isn't? This new project will shed light on the actual climate impact of said countries mitigation efforts and their level of ambition.

A sustainable bioeconomy could contribute to replacing fossil-based resources and feeding a growing world population. Inherent to a transformation towards such an economy are economic, ecological and social opportunities as well as risks. This project for the German Environment Agency explored these opportunities and challenges. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are the guiding principles of the 2030 Agenda, served as a basis for this evaluation.

On 4 December 2017, Matthias Duwe presented insights on national climate laws to inform Spanish debate gained from a joint research effort on long-term climate frameworks at a roundtable discussion organized by the renowned thing tank Elcano Royal Institute. He joined Valvanera Ulargui, head of the Spanish Climate Change Office at the national Environment Ministry and Jesús Fidel González Rouco from the Geosciences Institute (IGEO) of the Complutense University of Madrid and a contributor to the IPCC.

Ecologic Institute contributed to a practical guide for local-level evaluations of changes in ecosystem services. The approach helps to associate such changes to specific water management measures and enables both monetization and qualitative appraisal of impacts. Possible links between WFD State parameters and specific ESS classes are proposed. The article is available for download.

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.

In order to bring security of supply, competitiveness and climate protection together in an efficient and cost-effective way, the design of the European energy and climate policy by 2030 has been significantly improved in recent years. This includes the regulation of the governance system of the Energy Union. Negotiations on the legislation draft were completed in June 2018 and the Member States must then quickly start with the implementation. This includes writing a concept for integrated national energy and climate plans (NECPs) until the end of 2018. After being reviewed by the EU Commission by mid-2019, the NECPs should then be completed at latest by the end of 2019. In the period 2018-20, Member States will also need to establish long-term climate strategies (LTSs) for 2050 and beyond.

On 22 January 2018, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Philipp Voß presented the the report "The EU Emission Budget and its Implications for EU Climate Action" in Brussels. Beside the discussion of what a "fair" EU contribution according to the Paris Agreement is, they outlined different EU's greenhouse gas emission budgets scenarios. The presentations, agenda and list of participants are available for download.

As an output of the research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE), which was coordinated by Ecologic Institute, an edited volume entitled "Environmental Crime in Europe" was published by Hart Publishing. Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, contributed a chapter on environmental crime in Germany. In this chapter, he describes the legal framework on environmental crime in Germany and assesses its conformity with the EU's Environmental Crime Directive.

This portal provides information on how veterinary medicines enter the environment, explains their environmental impact and points out ways to reduce the number of entries. It is aimed at farmers and veterinarians in the livestock sector, in particular for cattle, pigs and poultry. Particular attention is paid to disease prevention measures, as veterinary medicinal products which do not need to be administered cannot enter the environment.

The Baltic Sea is among the most polluted water bodies in the world because of poor land and water management in the basin. In many cases, water resources in the Baltic Sea region are transboundary and flow across national borders linking neighbours in management and development challenges. After many years of silence amongst Polish and Russian authorities, a meeting between regional water authorities from Olsztyn in Poland and Kaliningrad Oblask in Russia was arranged in eastern Poland with the support of Ecologic Institute. The event slides are available for download.

The MinFuture website provides an overview of the project objectives, structure and partners as well as events and news related to relevant issues of the project. Furthermore, project outputs such as deliverables, policy briefs and publications are regularly promoted on the website. Ecologic Institute is responsible for the concept, design and programming.

The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the bilingual project website "Plastic in the Environment". It contains an interactive map, which gives an overview of all funded projects. Furthermore the website provides detailed information on the projects and related events as well as publications for download. User can also directly subscribe for the newsletter.

This illustration visualizes the processes of degradation, runoff, accumulation, uptake and infiltration of veterinary drugs in the environment. Active substances from veterinary medicines behave very differently depending on the substance and location properties. While sulfonamides, for example, can be transferred to groundwater, tetracyclines tend to accumulate in the topsoil.