This report presents scenarios for shipping in the Baltic Sea for the years 2030 and 2040. The following issues are addressed and the impact from shipping in these scenarios on the Baltic Sea region will be studied: What is the effect of a further slow steaming of shipping in the Baltic Sea; What is the effect of a modal shift from land to sea?; What is the impact of an introduction of a NECA by 2021?; What would be the effect if emissions to water from shipping are eliminated?; What would a large introduction of LNG as a marine fuel imply?; What can be done with further environmental regulations for leisure boats? Finally, what can be achieved with measures in ports?

This online platform is part of an ongoing ETS Summer University program that helps to meet the growing need for improved understanding of emissions trading as an instrument of climate policy in emerging economies and developing countries. The curriculum and corresponding activities are organized into course modules, which allows for differentiation and flexibility in the learning process. Participants from all over the world learn the material online for free with the aid of supplementary webinars that feature interactive, question-and-answer sessions with subject matter experts. Ecologic is responsible for large parts of the course content and coordination among the subject matter experts.

With this webinar, the consortium in charge of the European Commission's e-learning on emissions trading officially launches its free online course. The topic of this session, moderated by Ecologic Institute's Elizabeth Zelljadt, is "carbon market dynamics and risks" and features guest speaker Marcus Ferdinand of Thomson Reuters.

The project Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals for Soils aimed to examine how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target 15.3 on 'Land Degradation Neutrality' could be implemented in Germany and at the global level. Ecologic Institute analysed potential indicators, developed an own indicator concept build on land use changes and developed policy recommendations to implement the SDG 15.3.

On 29 and 30 October 2015, the Fundação da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (FFCUL) and Ecologic Institute, Berlin, convened a training course in Palmela (Portugal) on behalf of the BASE project. Designed for 16 carefully selected adaptation practitioners from all over Europe, the course provided a curriculum dedicated to the implementation of climate change adaptation projects, and offered illustration through hands-on examples, practical experience and case studies, heavily based on the results obtained from the BASE project. The presentation slides are available for download.

Dr. Grit Martinez, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, has been invited by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to give a presentation at the Side Event "From research to decision making", which will take place on 3 December 2015 in the German Pavilion.

In advance of COP21, more than 170 countries have so far pledged to implement national climate actions, INDCs. While the Paris negotiations will decide the future framework for these INDCs, this event looked at means of supporting implementation of national contributions that already exist and could be strengthened. Specifically, the discussion focused on technology needs assessments (TNAs) and current climate finance flows.

On 2 December 2015, Dr. Josselin Rouillard, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, together with Dr. Alistair Hunt from the University of Bath, gave a presentation at the ECONADAPT side event at COP21/CMP11 in Paris. The presentation slides are available for download.

At the International Symposium on COP21, Susanne Langsdorf spoke about the role non-state actors can play in international climate negotiations, with a focus on cities. While by definition non-state actors cannot be subject of international law; the Lima-Paris Action Agenda, the "Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action" and activities such as the "non-state actor zone for climate action" provide new options for non-state actors to play a role in the climate negotiations. The presentation "Cities and Climate Change in the context of COP21" is available for download.

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. Rodrigo Vidaurre and Josselin Rouillard from Ecologic Institute, provide five key recommendations on the types of incentives and stakeholder management strategies that can be employed to encourage innovation uptake in urban water management. The policy brief is targeted to technology companies and innovators and available for download.

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).