Is your drinking water clean? Is it safe to drink? In the last two decades, the presence of new chemical compounds called emerging pollutants has been detected in wastewater, aquatic environments, and drinking water. Emerging pollutants result from a variety of human processes and do not break down easily and therefore accumulate in our environment. The animation illustrates what emerging pollutants are, how they enter water sources, and what role individuals can take in improving the quality of their drinking water. Watch the animation, and please share it!

Invited by BfN (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) and ENCA (European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies), Sandra Naumann, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation titled "Nature-Based Solutions – The Case of Sustainable Urbanization". Drawing on the outcomes from the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities commissioned by DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission and in which Sandra Naumann took part, the talk outlined the EU Research and Innovation Agenda on nature-based solutions (NBS) with a particular focus on sustainable urbanization.

In September 2015, the United Nations is expected to adopt the Post-2015-Agenda, which will contain universal goals for sustainable development. This agenda will not only set objectives for developing countries but will also address industrialised countries and their sustainability policies. Ecologic Institute supported the Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) in this project in analysing if and how the national sustainability strategy must be adapted and further developed in view of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Ecologic Institute together with York university and Faust & Backhaus developed proposals on how to take better account of environmental risks in the authorisation decisions for veterinary pharmaceuticals. The project team assessed different regulations for chemicals and analysed what methods or procedures would be applicable in veterinary pharmaceuticals. Actions to risk reduction and substitution decisions had been assessed.

With this study, researchers from Südwind Institute (project lead) and Ecologic Institute inform the European Parliament about how the five emerging economies known collectively as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are emerging as development assistance donors and potential partners in the developing world. The authors discuss how South-South cooperation is becoming more significant and what challenges it poses to the EU's ODA agenda. Finally, the study provides a series of recommendations for European policy makers.

Considerably larger male than female populations in some countries in Asia as well as in Europe have led to concerns in the European Parliament about the discrimination against young girls that could lead to sex selective practices such as neglect, sex selective abortions, or even infanticide. This study by the Overseas Development Institute, UK (project lead) and Ecologic Institute provides the European Parliament with an overview of the causes, current trends, consequences, and policy challenges of sex selective practices, focusing particularly on China and India. It provides some recommendations for the European Parliament as to how these challenges can be addressed. The study is available for download.

In order to meet its renewable energy targets by 2020, the EU is likely to increase its demand for biomass, not only for biofuel crops but also for woody biomass. A significant portion of this biomass will likely come from developing countries, particularly those in West and Central Africa, as well as Latin American countries. This demand can have significant negative impacts in these developing regions, including environmental degradation and threats to food security. In this brief for the European Parliament, researchers at Ecologic Institute (Stefanie Wunder, Timo Kaphengst, Krista Timeus and Kristine Berzins) analyze some of those main impacts, focusing particularly on woody biomass. The study is available for download.

In an effort to increase education on the environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts of unconventional drilling such as fracking, Ecologic Institute and FracTracker Alliance are collaborating through an initiative to share the American fracking experience. As part of this initiative, a compelling series of 14 US-based and international workshops in affected communities has been created. One such workshop was hosted by the South Florida Wildlands Association in partnership with Ecologic Institute and FracTracker to share the latest insights on oil development activities (including seismic testing) in Florida and ways that the public can get involved.

On 27 February 2015, experts from Germany and the United States joined in Washington, D.C. at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss their work as it related to the conference theme, The Geopolitics of Energy. This conference was sponsored by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University with participation by Ecologic Institute Berlin.

On 10 April 2015, Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic Institute's legal team, gave a presentation on the relationship between international trade and environmental agreements at a conference of the Protestant Academy Hofgeismar. The conference centered on the topic: "Natural enemies – Environmental protection and free global trade as a legal and political problem." The presentation slides are available for download.

What progress have EU Member States made in implementing the Water Framework Directive between the first (2009) to the second cycle (2015) of river basin management planning? A consultant's report co-authored by Ecologic Institute is provides initial insights on the basis of a screening assessment of the second River Basin Management Plans draft, prepared for the fourth European Water Conference. The report is available for download.

Developing countries are the main providers of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Conversely, most intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds and medicines are concentrated in developed countries. This has some disadvantages for developing countries. Thus, patents on seed or pharmaceutical products sometimes make the access to such products for the poor more difficult and expensive; there are hardly any positive effects of IPRs on fighting poverty by contrast. This is the result of a study for the European Parliament that Ecologic Institute helped to write. The study, which was written by Ecologic Institute (Christiane Gerstetter, Christine Lucha, Katriona McGlade and Elizabeth Tedsen) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel is available for download.

Despite the continuous international efforts to reduce energy poverty, about 2.7 billion people do not have access to modern energy services in the developing countries. This study analyses the current situation, outlines the main challenges but also provides best practice examples how the challenges can be met. Eike Dreblow from Ecologic Institute was one of the authors. The final results of this project are available for download.

In December 2010, the EU Commission published a Green Book on the future of EU development policy, entitled "EU development policy in support of inclusive growth and sustainable development – Increasing the impact of EU development policy." Christiane Gerstetter and Benjamin Görlach of Ecologic Institute responded to a question from the European Parliament on the relationship between climate change, biodiversity and development. The brief is available for download.

The study "An Assessment of the Balancing of EU Development Objectives with Other Policies and Priorities", to which Ecologic Institutes scientists Christiane Gerstetter and Jenny Kirschey contributed, evaluates the coherence between the EU's development policies and its other policies. Its authors describe the positive and negative impacts of these policies on development priorities and provide recommendations to achieve better policy coherence. The study was commissioned by the European Parliament and is available for download.