Marine ecosystems such as the Faial-Pico Channel, in the Azores, provide stakeholders with a broad range of valuable ecosystem services, including fish and recreation opportunities for locals and tourists. The global decline of marine biodiversity as well as the diverging interests between sectors such as fisheries and tourism place challenges upon policy-makers, administrators, and managers. In a response to this challenge, Marine Protected Area (MPA) managers worldwide increasingly rely on stakeholder input to ensure that all views and values are considered. However, adequate management should not only reflect all of society’s views, but also be based on the best and most up-to-date knowledge.

The illegal pollution of soil, water, and air, the illegal trade in protected species or the illegal shipment of waste abroad – these are different forms of environmental crime. Environmental crime has many negative consequences. Its environmental impacts range from the destruction of forests to the pollution of water, soil, and air and even to species extinction. Moreover, many types of environmental crime also affect human health, and organised forms of environmental crime undermine state structures and sustainable development.

Green infrastructure (GI) and nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognised for their potential to contribute to a range of urban challenges and policy objectives. But, how can they be mainstreamed in practice and to what extent do current policy frame-works support their implementation? At the international conference on "Urban Green In-frastructure - Connecting People and Nature for Sustainable Cities", Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis and Sandra Naumann addressed these and other issues in targeted ses-sions. The conference, held in Malmö (Sweden) from 20 to 21 September 2017, was the final conference of the EU-funded GreenSurge project.

Ecologic Institute co-authored the guideline "Relevance of Indicators for Policy Making" which is the third and final publication in the Eurostat's series. This guideline takes a closer look at how indicators, which take up an increasingly prominent role in the political sphere, can improve policy making by providing examples from theory and practice. It also puts forward recommendations for researchers and experts on how to create indicators that are relevant, and points out the potential stumbling blocks of using indicators to guide political processes. The guideline is available for download.

The EU is currently negotiating a comprehensive reorientation of energy and climate policy for the decade 2020-2030. In this strategy brief, Katharina Umpfenbach discusses how the next German federal government can shape the EU negotiations so as to create an EU electricity market regulation that is conducive to the German energy transition. Four central elements are identified: raising the ambition of energy targets and introducing long-term targets, developing effective oversight instruments to ensure compliance, adjusting the electricity market to the needs of wind and solar power, and initiating an exit strategy for coal firing. The strategy brief is available for download.

Ecologic Institute supported the German Environment Agency in hosting the workshop "Decarbonisation – 100 % Renewable Energy and more: Transformation pathways to a greenhouse gas neutral and resource efficient society," which took place on 17 October 2017 in Berlin.

On 5 September 2017, Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a short presentation at the Federal Environment Agency's "Forum 2017 - Effectively reducing food waste - achieving more together". She reported on interim results from the European project REFRESH, which deals with the prevention of food waste and the recycling of surplus food.

Between July and September 2017 this nine-part webinar series brought together Arctic experts, professionals and students. The webinar series covered topics including shipping and marine governance, energy, environmental impact assessments, science, security, and indigenous communities in the Arctic.

The ELEEP Network podcast series focuses on current developments in climate and energy policy on both sides of the Atlantic, delivering in-depth discussion and expert interviews on a range of pressing topics. The latest four episodes feature insights from the June 2017 ELEEP conference on "Tipping Points - Finding the Energy Climate Balance," including keynote talks by some of the brightest minds in the field. Ecologic Institute's Nick Evans produced the podcast series. The episodes can be listened to via stream on SoundCloud and by subscribing to the ELEEP Network podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

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.