On 22 November 2012, Ecologic Institute organized a side-event entitled ‘European Innovation for Sustainable Water Management: Users meet Researchers’ at the IWRM Karlsruhe 2012. The event presented five European research projects and their innovative outputs, covering the topics of sustainable urban water management and the adaptation of freshwater ecosystem management to climate change. Ulf Stein and Johanna von Toggenburg organized the side-event as part of WaterDiss2.0, a project within the 7th European Union-funded Framework Programme, which supports research projects in the water sector along with the transfer of their results to intended users, thereby linking science, policy, and practice.

Mainstream economic indicators still dominate practical policy making. In this journal article, Lucas Porsch explains how the connection of sustainability measures and these mainstream indicators can be a tool for policy makers to understand and manage trade-offs between different sustainability categories.

From 23 until 26 October 2012 the conference 'Taking stock' on the future of the EU Common Fisheries Policy was held in Lübeck as part of a series of seminars for European journalists. The conference was organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) in collaboration with the Ecologic Institute.

Bilateral cooperation with the USA is key for achieving the long-term goal of a global carbon market. This projects aimed to support a focused dialogue on aspects of climate change, in particular emissions trading, by providing background information and continuous reporting on current developments, as well as by supporting transatlantic communication and cooperation.

At a special event, the "Climate Talk" series starred Jeffrey Ball, Scholar–in–Residence at Stanford University and former Environment Editor at the Wall Street Journal; Enno Harks, Senior Political Advisor with BP; and Dr. Petri Hakkarainen, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS). The event featured a truly transatlantic exchange on the German "Energiewende". It was moderated by Dr. Camilla Bausch of the Ecologic Institute.

The interdisciplinary research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) assesses the impacts of environmental crime as well as effective and feasible policy options for combatting it, with a focus on the EU. The project is funded under the 7th Research Framework Programme of the EU (FP7). Ecologic coordinates the work of 11 European universities and think tanks involved in the project.

Since 2008, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety has financed the National Climate Initiative (NKI in German), in order to achieve its national target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2050. In order to make optimal use of the funds, it is necessary to include technological innovation and societal processes in funding initiatives. This necessitates new approaches on many levels, involving many stakeholders and aspects of daily life. Researchers from Ecologic Institute, Arepo Consult, Oeko-Institut, and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) supported the implementation and further development of the National Climate Initiative project.

The final policy brief of the European Union research project "Climate Change, Hydro-conflicts and Human Security" (CLICO) presents the results of three years of research in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the Sahel (MMES). It also gives policy recommendations. The policy brief is available for download.

<p>Rising sea levels, altered rainfall patterns, extreme weather events, and their socioeconomic consequences (economic crisis, migration, infrastructure loss, etc.) are only some of the effects of climate change that will hit hardest in developing and industrializing countries. Some of these countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are home to the most vulnerable populations in the face of climate change. At the same time, they offer many opportunities to link climate change adaptation to sustainable economic development. In this study, commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Ecologic Institute researchers identified&nbsp; the factors that most limit developing countries&#39; ability to adapt to climate change. They also proposed economic instruments that focus on private sector mobilization to strengthen adaptation capacity and make recommendations for how future development cooperation projects can integrate these instruments.</p>