Investor protection and arbitration courts may be the most controversial topics during the present TTIP negotiations. In light of this public debate, the European Commission presented its first proposal for the reform of TTIP investor protection in May 2015. The proposal includes broad reforms concerning the allocation of arbitration courts as well as the challenge of arbitral awards. Further proposals have been made by the European Parliament in July 2015. In spring 2015, social democratic ministers from different EU countries brought a permanent international court house for investment disputes up for discussion. A reform of the international investment protection regime has already been in discussion for some time. The EU Commission plans to present a concrete proposal for the ISDS reform in the coming weeks.

Ecologic Institute welcomes twenty climate scholars from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation on their study tour "Knowledge Transfer for Effective Climate Protection Policies". During their tour the scholars will visit different institutions working in the field of climate change, such as the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA).

"What does the change of system involve? Switching to tenders for German Renewable Energies Promotion” is the topic of the Climate Talk which took place on October 6, 2015. Cornelia Viertl (BMWi), Sabine Schmedding (BWE) and Fabian Wigand (Ecofys) opened the discussion at the event organized by the Ecologic Institute and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

Both at the international level and in the European Union, governments are currently negotiating future approaches to mitigating global climate change. In both arenas, a key question is how the institutions will follow up on the implementation of agreed targets and measures. In this debate about appropriate governance tools, planning and reporting requirements occupy a central role. This policy brief by Ralph Bodle and Katharina Umpfenbach explores the relationship between the current and likely future reporting requirements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the EU's internal governance system. The policy brief is available for download.

What do we know about the effectiveness of legislation to combat environmental crime within the EU and its Member States? And how can we measure its effectiveness? These were the two core questions that Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic's Legal Team, addressed in a presentation at the conference of the European Environmental Law Forum in September 2015 in Aix-en-Provence. The presentation is available for download.

Together with other institutes, Ecologic Institute has a framework contract with the European Parliament to support the work of its Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Under this framework contract, the European Parliament regularly requests studies and briefing papers on EU environmental policies and issues of sustainable development.

The dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the most active and influential international courts. How the WTO dispute settlement bodies decide cases was the topic of a presentation that Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic's legal team, gave at an international law conference in Oslo. The presentation slides are available for download.

"Sort of best friends?" was the title of a conference which took place on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the IÖW and VÖW on 2 November 2015. The Ecological Research Network (Ecornet) – of which Ecologic Institute is a member – along with the civil society players Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Brot für die Welt and Zivilgesellschaftliche Plattform Forschungswende hosted the event.

Sustainable development is a fundamental and overarching objective of the European Union, enshrined in the Treaty. The EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) brings together the many strands of economic, social and environmental policy under one overarching objective – to continually improve the quality of life and well-being for present and future generations.

In this presentation, Grazia Maria Vagliasindi, University of Catania, and Christiane Gerstetter, Ecologic Institute, presented the results of the EU-funded research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) to an audience of criminologists and police officers. The presentation is available for download.

The Yearbook Ecology 2016 was published in August. Ecologic Institute is one of the institutes supporting this yearbook.

A group of 12 decision makers from the Midwest in the USA came to Germany from 15 until 21 November 2015 in order to explore and discuss German energy policy and aspects of structural change in former industrial and coal regions. Participants were able to speak with representatives from ministries, (state) parliaments, think tanks and businesses in Berlin, Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Despite their successful application in other environmental domain (such as air quality and climate), the use of economic policy instruments (EPIs) to tackle water management issues has faced many challenges. This report, written by Ecologic Institute in collaboration with partners as part of the EU-funded FP7 EPI-Water project, provides practical guidance to policy-makers and interested parties on the formulation of economic policy instruments for water management. Economic policy instruments presented in the report include incentive pricing, pollution taxes, water and pollution trading schemes, payments for environmental services, and risk management schemes. The report is available for download.

On 21 September 2015, Dr. Eleftheria Kampa, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a lecture on EU water and river basin management policy at the Potsdam Summer School on Facing Natural Hazards (14 - 23 September 2015). The presentation slides are available for download.

In the "Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations," a group of high-level lawyers and philosophers addresses obligations of States and enterprises to avert the critical level of climate change – irrespective of already existing obligations resulting from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or a (potential) follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The group argues that existing legal sources including human rights law, environmental law and tort law oblige states to take measures leading to drastic emissions reductions that ensure that the global temperature increase does not exceed pre-industrial temperatures by more than 2°C.