This article, written by Ruta Landgrebe and Benjamin Boteler from Ecologic Institute in the theme issue of the German League for Nature, Animal Protection and Environment’s (DNR) newsletter, concerns environmentally harmful EU subsidies in the agricultural and fisheries sectors and argues for continued support for the "greening" of the EU budget, including the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies for the new seven-year funding period 2014-2020.

On 9-10 February 2012, DG Environment of the European Commission organized the 2nd Stakeholder Workshop for the Fitness Check of EU Freshwater Policy in Brussels. Lessons learned from this workshop contribute to the design and assessment of policy options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources. Eleftheria Kampa and Johanna von der Weppen contributed to the workshop conclusions. The conclusions are available for download.

On 9-10 February 2012, DG Environment of the European Commission organized the 2nd Stakeholder Workshop for the Fitness Check of EU Freshwater Policy in Brussels. Lessons learned from this workshop contribute to the design and assessment of policy options for the Blueprint to Safeguard Europe's Water Resources. Eleftheria Kampa and Johanna von der Weppen contributed a discussion paper to the conference. The paper is available for download.

Ecologic Institute compiled the national study for Germany, which focused on the Rhine and Elbe basins and mainly analyzed the origins and experiences of public participation approaches in water management. The study is available for download.

Ecologic Institute supported the Institute for Environmental Systems Research at the University of Osnabrück in conducting a real-time case study in the Elbe basin. The main research focus of this study was the interplay of authorities and the various interest groups. The study is available for download.

Sustainability aspects are often insufficiently considered, if at all, within standards for evaluations or impact assessments. This book chapter points out the challenges raised by sustainability evaluations and the aspects which should be added to existing evaluation standards.

The international architecture for financing environmental protection and institutions has become quite confusing, spread out across an increasing number of bilateral and multilateral actors, funds and financing mechanisms. This study, commissioned by the German Federal Environment Agency, investigates the current system and provides recommendations on how to improve it. The study is available for download.

The latest research results on climate change and adaptation along the German Baltic Sea Coast are presented by the RADOST project (Regional Adaptation Strategies for the German Baltic Sea Coast) in its 3rd annual report. They were developed in cooperation with partners in the project region.

In July 2012, the sixth ICAP Summer School on Emissions Trading brought together experts from emerging economies and developing countries to learn about emissions trading as a tool for climate protection and to discuss the options of implementing such systems in developing countries. The Summer School in Dublin was the sixth of its kind and continues a series of past ICAP events held in Berlin, The Hague, Beijing, Madrid and Alajuela (Costa Rica). It was attended by 29 mid-career professionals from 12 countries. Michael Mehling, Benjamin Görlach and Miriam Schröder led the course.

Information on the environmental characteristics of products, such as on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused during their production or their energy efficiency, are essential in order to allow consumers to make informed choices on which products to buy. This study investigated different design options for product-related environmental information addressed at consumers.

The objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship between the performance of the waste management systems in the EU Member States (MS) and their use of economic instruments (EI). On the basis of this analysis, the opportunity to move towards a European common approach for the use of EIs in relation to waste management is explored. The results show that landfill charges and product responsibility schemes are implemented in most MS. Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) systems have only been introduced in half of the MS.