Is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) the beginning of a new era of investment protection under free trade agreements, one that addresses long standing concerns surrounding investment protection? The answer to these questions is, by and large, no. CETA's investment chapter is not only superfluous but harmful because, among other reasons, it distorts competition at the expense of domestic competitors. The comments of Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, are available for download.

Ecologic Institute coordinated the organisation of the National Resources Forum 2014. For these the programme brochure was developed and designed, to hand it over to participants. It contained information about the event agenda and schedule, speakers and a space for notes. The design of the brochure and the color scheme were based on the visual style of UBA. The NRF brochure is set on 32 pages. The A5 brochure was printed on recycled paper.

Ecologic Institute coordinated the organisation of the European Resource Forum (ERF) 2014. For these the programme brochure was developed and designed, to hand it over to participants. It contained information about the event agenda and schedule, speakers and a space for notes. The design of the brochure and the color scheme were based on the visual style of UBA. The ERF brochure is set on 48 pages. The A5 brochure was printed on recycled paper.

Environmental laws and measures not only have impacts on the environment, but also induce different kinds of benefits and costs for citizens and the economy. For a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of new policies and measures, both environmental and economic costs and benefits need to be analysed and, if appropriate, monetised.

A new economic paradigm and its multiple facets for future development were intensively discussed at the international "Degrowth Conference" in Leipzig from 2. until 6. September 2014. The Ecologic Institute contributed through presentations, workshops and moderations. Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers and Susanne Langsdorf presented results obtained in a "Horizon Scanning"-exercise done as part of the SimRess-project. The presentation slides are available for download.

Christiane Gerstetter and Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf spoke on regulatory cooperation and investment protection in the stakeholder forum "TTIP re:negotiate" in Berlin on 17 November 2014. The event was co-organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC (USA).

The Arctic Climate Change Emerging Leaders Fellowship (ACCEL), Barents Regional Youth Council, Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP), Reykjavik University, and Youth Arctic Coalition convened a workshop as well as a question and answer session with Admiral Robert J. Papp, U.S. Special Representative for the Arctic and the top U.S. Government Arctic official. The session took place at the 2014 Arctic Circle Assembly on 31 October 2014. A video of the event is available online.

The project supports the European Commission (EU) to coordinate and promote the implementation of European coastal and marine policies in the Member States. Issues with special focus are the analysis and development of integrated approaches and instruments for facilitating the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In addition, the project assists the EU in organising sessions and workshops with competent expert groups and in improving the exchange of model examples via the database of OURCOAST.

On 2 March 2015, Eurostat published its most recent Flagship Publication Smarter, greener, more inclusive?. The report, commissioned by Eurostat, assesses the EU's progress in implementing the Europe 2020 strategy. Commissioned by Eurostat, Andreas Prahl, Katharina Umpfenbach and Eike Velten of Ecologic Institute edited the chapter on climate change and energy. It discusses progress towards the so-called 20-20-20 targets which aim at cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable energy supply, and improving energy efficiency.

From 14 to 15 November 2014 the conference, "Transformations of the Ecology Movement: from the 'Limits to Growth' to the Rio Conference," took place in the Archiv Grünes Gedächtnis (Green Memory Archive) of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. Doris Knoblauch and Susanne Langsdorf (both of Ecologic Institute) presented two articles on the development of environmental policy consultancy in Germany, which were written for the project "From 'The Blue Sky above the Ruhr' to the 'Energiewende.'"

The European Union is in a unique position to support and coordinate Member State efforts to develop Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies, as well as support collaboration on the development and sharing of knowledge, standards and cost-effective tools. This finding and other key messages are presented in a new policy brief for EU policy makers, prepared as part of the EU FP7 Collaborative project RISC-KIT (Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts-Toolkit) and in collaboration with PEARL (Preparing for Extreme and Rare events in coastaL regions). The policy brief is available for download.

As part of the visual identity for project "Post-Carbon Cities in Europe: A Long-Term Outlook" (POCACITO), Ecologic Institute designed a promotional flyer in small postcard format. The flyer summarizes general objectives and aims of the project, is styled according to the project style-guide and also contains a list of partners, contact information and a QR-code directing to the project website. Flyers are distributed during project events.

As part of the project "Models, Potentials and Long-Term Scenarios for Resource Efficiency" (SimRess), Ecologic Institute developed a promotional flyer based on visual style and template of the Federal Environment Agency. Flyer contains relevant general information about the project – its theme, focus, aims, activities, list of partners and contact information, as well as a simple graph built also by Ecologic Institute.