This policy report compares approaches to sustainable transportation financing in the U.S. and Germany, with a focus on Northern Virginia and the Stuttgart region. Max Gruenig and Dominic Marcellino, Senior Fellow Ecologic Institute Berlin and Fellow Ecologic Institute Washington DC respectively, are co-authors with Andrea Broaddus, PhD Candidate at the University of California at Berkeley. The policy report is available for download.

This study supported the Joint Research Centre in a pilot project on the "certification of low carbon farming practices in the European Union". An EU-wide survey of data availability for a carbon calculator tool was carried out, along with the testing of the tool and assessment of policy options for promoting its use. The project documents are available for download.

<p>On 6 March 2013, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the Embassy of Canada, Ecologic Institute and the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research hosted a lecture by David Hik, University of Alberta, Canada and IASC President. The session focused on possible future trajectories of national and international research in the Arctic region, drawing on Prof. Hik’s observations of the recent past and International Polar Year initiatives. Following the lecture, Prof. Hik fielded questions from the 35 participants, who represented German research institutes and ministries, foreign embassies and foundations and think tanks.</p>&#13;

Ecologic Institute advised the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) on the post-2020 update of EU climate and energy policy, analysing the climate, political, legal, financial and economic impacts of proposed options and developing recommendations for action. These include the thematic design of the emissions trading system after 2020, targets and instruments in the field of renewable energies and energy efficiency, as well as a redesign of the Effort-Sharing Decision.

On 19 December 2012, the first monitoring report from the Federal Government and the joint statement from the expert commissions about the "Energy of the Future" monitoring process were presented. The independent expert commission, composed of Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel, Prof. Dr. Georg Erdmann, Prof. Dr. Frithjof Staiß, and Dr. Hans-Joachim Ziesing, provided scientific support and delivered a joint statement on the monitoring process, which should show progress towards the German "Energiewende", and with it a highly efficient energy system based on renewable sources by the year 2050,. Ecologic Institute provided scientific support to this work with a focus on the key topics that Dr. Hans-Joachim Ziesing and the expert commission selected for their joint statement. The joint statement is available for download.

In his article in the "Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht," Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf (Ecologic Institute) analyzes what consequences the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe would have for environmental policy. This treaty was signed in 2004 but did not come into force as it was not ratified. The author focuses on the institutional architecture of the European Union, which would undergo some changes due to the treaty.

In the article "Die Zukunft bleibt ungewiss" published in "Politische Ökologie," R. Andreas Kraemer, Director of Ecologic Institute, Daniel Blobel, and Eduard Interwies (both also of Ecologic Institute) discuss the future prospects of the German eco-tax. The authors are of the opinion that an abolition of the tax is not very probable, but neither are the necessary reforms.

In the magazine of the Hans Böckler Foundation, R. Andreas Kraemer, Wenke Hansen, and Eduard Interviews provide insights into the so-called "Ewers-Gutachten," an expert report released by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. This report – which was supported by R. Andreas Kraemer –deals with options, opportunities, and preconditions of a deregulated, more sustainable water management system.

The decarbonization of the German energy system, the so-called German "Energiewende," was officially adopted with the introduction of the "Energy Concept" of September 2010 and the energy policy decisions of June 2011. These decisions foresee the development of a highly efficient energy system based on renewable sources by the year 2050. In order to make the progress visible, a monitoring process was established, accompanied by an independent expert commission. This project includes the scientific support of Dr. Hans-Joachim Ziesing and the other members of the expert commission for the "Energy of the Future" monitoring process.

As its first outreach activity, the research project CECILIA2050 staged a stakeholder workshop on future directions for EU climate policies on 20 February 2013. Sixty researchers, EU officials, and NGO and Member State representatives came to Brussels to discuss the path to an optimal 2050 EU climate policy mix. Initial results from country case studies (Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK) were presented. A panel of five distinguished experts discussed current trends in EU climate policy. The presentations are available for download.

The study examined the charges levied on patients for the diagnosis and treatment of the ten most common outpatient conditions handled in the emergency department (ED). The results of research undertaken by scientists and faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, and Ecologic Institute have been published in the scientific journal PLoS One. Based on a cross-sectional study of the 2006–2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the analysis was limited to outpatient visits with non-elderly, adult (years 18–64) patients with a single discharge diagnosis. A sample of 8,303 ED encounters was analyzed, which is representative of a total of 76.6 million ED visits during the studied 3-year period. It was found that charges varied significantly by diagnosis and across EDs for the same diagnosis. The study is available for download.