Within the European water research project "Demonstrate Ecosystem Services Enabling Innovation in the Water Sector (DESSIN)," a policy brief on governance factors conducive to innovation in the urban water sector was published. Josselin Rouillard and Rodrigo Vidaurre from Ecologic Institute, provide five key recommendations on policy frameworks, incentives and stakeholder management strategies that can be employed to encourage innovation uptake in urban water management. The policy brief is targeted to water managers and policy makers and is available for download.

In 2016, the negotiations on the legislative instruments for the EU's 2030 climate and energy targets will take off for good. Following the proposal for a revised ETS Directive in mid-2015, the next milestone for the implementing legislation will be a new Effort Sharing Decision (ESD). The European Commission is expected to publish a proposal for the new ESD before the summer.

The third webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on 28 October 2015 and featured a discussion on the topic "EU Climate Policy for 2030: why are we talking about governance?" moderated by Matthias Duwe (Head, Climate at Ecologic Institute). The webinar featured two main speakers. The audio recording is available online.

The European Commission's "better regulation" agenda requires that new legislative proposals be accompanied by an evaluation of already existing relevant legislation. This study therefore evaluates the EU Emissions Trading Directive in light of potential changes to it within Europe's overall Climate and Energy Package 2030. The report uses a systematic approach to evaluate the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value of the EU ETS Directive. The study is available for download.

Within this project, Ecologic Institute contributed to improving the understanding of Mexican policy makers regarding the requirements and technical parameters of a national emissions trading system. Among Latin American countries, Mexico is a frontrunner when it comes to climate change policy and has started to take appropriate action at the national level. Measures adopted so far include the 2012 climate act as well as sectoral approaches such as the partial taxation of fossil fuels since the beginning of 2014 or several other measures (in particular efficiency measures in the building sector).

On behalf of the German Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute is carrying out the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond." As part of the project, several expert workshops provide a platform for different stakeholder representatives to discuss and evaluate developments of the climate regime, the status of the UN climate negotiations and the outcome of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will be held in Paris in December 2015.

The briefing "Supporting delivery of climate ambition through the Energy Union: What is needed from Member States' National Energy Plans?" presents key messages from three research papers that have considered the options for reforming planning and reporting, and related issues that are fundamental to the development of credible governance arrangements for the Energy Union.

On 19 October 2015, local and regional coastal implementing agencies met in Bologna (Italy) on invitation of the FP-7 project RISC-KIT and the Geological Service of the Emilia-Romagna Region for the first Italian RISC-KIT Stakeholder's Day. Participants discussed the state of the art of coastal protection and the improvement of prevention, mitigation, and preparedness measures against coastal storms, erosion, and flash floods in the region. During the consultation Dr. Grit Martinez from Ecologic Institute presented the outcomes of a socio-political-cultural and ecological analysis. The analysis highlighted factors essential to the improvement and implementation of disaster risk reduction measures in the strategically important touristic region Emilia Romagna.

How can industrialised nations, regions and cities mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in various economic sectors? At the international workshop “Decarbonisation – 100 % Renewable Energy and More”, decarbonisation approaches and strategies pursued in Europe on different political levels were showcased, discussed and reviewed with regard to their cross-border transferability. It showcased different examples from across the EU, highlighting specific national and city level strategies and discussed their respective commonalities and differences with an expert audience. The high-level workshop was organized by the German Federal Environment Agency with support of Ecologic Institute.

An innovative 'Toolbox', aimed to help farmers achieve a good balance between crop productivity, soil health and soil carbon storage, has been developed as a result of a major EU research project called SmartSOIL. The SmartSOIL toolbox is an interactive platform which will show advisers and farmers potential changes in yield and soil organic carbon content which can result from implementing these practices. The toolbox is available online.

Fertile soils are an indispensable resource for agriculture and the Bioeconomy as a whole. Subsoils contain a major part of the nutrients essential for plants, a resource potential that has thus far not yet been fully understood nor used. In order to harness this untapped potential, the Soil³ project examines the subsoil processes and application of alternative subsoil management measures. The Ecologic Institute will conduct research on the costs, benefits and social acceptance of these measures.

"Opportunities for and barriers to German-French contributions to the Climate Conference in Paris" was the topic of a panel discussion on 16 October 2015. The German-French association Gerhard Kiersch Verein / AGKV organized the event. The discussion addressed the question of how Germany and France could contribute to the success of the global climate conference and which obstacles still need to be overcome.

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer (MCC) and Hildegard Müller (BDEW) extended an invitation for 15 October 2015 to discuss the topic "The Climate Conference in Paris – and then?" Franziska Erdle (WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle), Dr. Camilla Bausch (Ecologic Institute) and Christoph Bals (Germanwatch) provided commentary to the introductory talks of Edenhofer and Müller.

The fourth expert workshop of the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond" dealt with the topic "Closing the post-Paris ambition gap: enhancing ambition before 2020 and the role of climate action pioneers." The event took place on 27 October 2015 in Berlin.

The first study tour of the 2015-2016 ELEEP Fellowship Class took place from 21 until 25 September 2015. On the study tour 15 ELEEP members visited Denmark and Germany to explore both opportunities and challenges of the European Energy Transition.