In their 2007 publication for the first issue of CCLR, Dr. Camilla Bausch, Director of Ecologic Institute, and Michael Mehling, Partner and Board Member of the Institute, took stock of progress with climate negotiations under the United Nations. Now, a decade later, they have revisited their assessment, tracing the tumultuous path of negotiations since 2007, and pointing to milestones in the journey, major achievements, as well as challenges that lie ahead.

Despite President Trump's skepticism regarding the Paris Agreement and his focus on fossil fuels, the interest in the German Energiewende and the role of renewables remains high in transatlantic exchange. Dr. Camilla Bausch, Director of Ecologic Institute, was invited to speak at two high-level events with US policy makers.

Ecologic Institute co-authored the RECREATE policy brief no. 7 on challenges and opportunities for national waste prevention programs. The authors state that the political framework needs to be more enabling and with further support for research and development targeted at measuring waste prevention and behavior change to unlock the potential of waste prevention. The RECREATE policy brief is available for download.

Ecologic Institute organized the second ICAP Master Course on Emissions Trading in Lisbon (Portugal). The two week-long course brought together 30 experts from emerging economies and developing countries to learn about emissions trading systems (ETS) as a tool for climate protection, and to discuss the options of implementing or optimizing such systems in their home countries.

Addressing anthropogenic climate change requires a reassessment of all the choices we make in life, no matter if they are made individually or from within collective institutions. During the workshop "Communicating the Climate in a Controversial Time", Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute spoke on the topics of climate change acceptance and governance under different socio-cultural regimes. The event was hosted by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an international, interdisciplinary center for research and education in the environmental humanities supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The infographic visualizes the structure and interaction of the rating categories for assessing the potential for transformation of sustainability initiatives, as developed in the project "From Niche to Mainstream - How to Spread Sustainable Practices";. The evaluation system pursues the aims of initiatives, social innovations, sustainability innovations etc. to their potential for transformation and their sustainability effects, and to evaluate them, depending on the application context.

In the framework of the scientific accompanying research (PlastikNet) of the research focus "Plastics in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions" (Plastik in der Umwelt – Quellen • Senken • Lösungsansätze) Ecologic Institute coordinated 20 joint research projects, which dealt with plastics in the environment funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).

Natacha Amorsi et. al. 2016: WaterDiss. Analysis and uptake of water research results. In: André Martinuzzi and Michal Sedlacko (eds.): Knowledge Brokerage for Sustainable Development. Innovative Tools for Increasing Research Impact and Evidence-Based Policy-Making. Routledge: London.

The Rostock Energy Alliance (Energiebündnis Rostock) was founded in April 2011 by the City of Rostock and nine other municipal stakeholders from sectors such as public transport, housing and waste and water management. Their united goal is a locally based energy supply fully sourced from renewables. While CO2 emissions should be reduced, quality of life should not. The Alliance meets face-to-face biannually to exchange knowledge and experience, as well as to seek synergies for various constituent activities. The Alliance aims to reduce the annual CO2 emission per person to 2.5t or less by 2030. Compared to 2010, this is equal to a 2% reduction per year. To date (2015), the Energy Alliance supported the city in the creation of an energy transition concept and the current implementation of associated measures, in addition to the foundation of an energy cooperative.

This assessment report gives an overview of the key indicators for the POCACITO (Post-Carbon Cities of Tomorrow) case study of Rostock. This mid-sized city is located in Central Europe on the north-east coast of Germany. Rostock is a regional centre and coastal city. The assessment provides an outline of some of its main challenges and opportunities. The report was used in the POCACITO project for workshops with stakeholders in Rostock on vision building and back-casting to derive a 2050 roadmap as well as a scenario modelling on Rostocks measures for climate change mitigation.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) as a promising nature-based solution are the focus of a new chapter, written by Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis and Sandra Naumann. The authors utilize a range of case studies and evidence from across Europe to underline the potential of SUDS as a tool to reduce the negative effects of urban flooding and resultant water pollution. The diverse environmental and societal co-benefits are also presented as well as insights on the potential cost-effectiveness of SUDS as compared to grey infrastructure solutions.

Ecologic Institute has developed a web-based monitoring tool within the framework of the National Climate Initiative's Strategic Development Project, which enables grant recipients to create interim and final reports.

'Protecting the natural environment is part of our responsibility for future generations' – this is the environmental policy guiding principle of the coalition agreement of Merkel's third cabinet. Has the Federal Government made environmental protection its guiding principle in the last four years? The answer: there is light and shadow. More light in international environmental policy and more shade at home. There have been some important achievements, but in the last four years none of the negative environmental trends have been stopped or even reversed. All in all far too little – as Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf finds in this opinion paper.

In this chapter the authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Josselin Rouillard, examine how the Water-Energy-Food nexus is emerging at different scales and national contexts worldwide. The chapter presents empirical evidence of innovations in terms of policy instruments. Normative suggestions for theorizing future nexus governance are also presented.

Using natural resources sustainably in the long term requires applying and scaling-up resource efficient technologies and infrastructures as well as changing behaviour and social practices. Technologies and infrastructure can only then unfold resource savings potential, when accepted and used across society. In this context, socio-economic and socio-cultural developments will affect both the availability and the use of technological and social innovations.