The pressure on land and natural resources is increasing worldwide. While there are many sectoral policies tackling different environmental problems, land use is not regulated in an integrated and overarching way. The discussion on sustainable biofuels and biomass highlights the continued lack of an effective and innovative framework to deal with complex land-use issues. The aim of the GLOBALANDS project is to identify existing land use policies and develop possible governance tools towards a more resource efficient and sustainable global land use.

The CECILIA2050 project makes recommendations on how a suitable mix of instruments could be used to enable the EU to meet the 2050 greenhouse gas emission targets adopted by EU leaders in 2009. The project website was designed and programmed by Ecologic Institute and serves as a platform where publications, news and events are shared. The internal area gives research partners access to drafts, discussions and partners' contact data.

The EU research project BASE supports action for sustainable climate change adaptation in Europe. The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the project's website. It contains an interactive map, which gives an overview of the BASE case studies. Furthermore the webpage provides detailed information on the project and its events as well as publications for download. Users can also subscribe for the newsletter.

During the course of this framework contract, Ecologic Institute will provide scientific services on a range of issues relating to scientific and technological developments in the environment field in order not only to support STOA’s work specifically but also the European Parliament’s work in general.

EUROSTAT has commissioned a consortium led by the WU Vienna and including the Ecologic Institute, INFRAS and Haymarket to develop two publications on the EU sustainable development indicators. The consortium will produce a manual for the SDS indicators aiming to explain the indicators to potential users and a guide that will be used to advertise the SDS indicators to a lay audience at the Rio+20 summit.

The economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services has become a widespread tool to inform policy-makers about the consequences of environmental change. Assessments of environmental impacts at large geographic scales have led to growing policy and academic interest in transferring ecosystem service values from existing valuation studies to other ecosystem sites at a large geographic scale. This paper, published in Environmental and Resource Economics, proposes a methodology for scaling up ecosystem service values to estimate the welfare effects of ecosystem change at this larger geographic scale.

In a literature review, Ecologic Institute examined the effects of environmental tax reforms on the distribution of wealth among different population groups. The review was a contribution to a project commissioned by the European Environment Agency that analysed the long-term perspectives of a substantial shift of taxation from labour and income towards resource use in Europe. Distributional impacts of such a tax reform are addressed in one project report, while another one focuses on the effects of environmental tax reform on innovation.

In a literature review, Ecologic Institute examined the effects of environmental tax reforms on the distribution of wealth among different population groups. The review, which contributed to a study commissioned by the European Environment Agency, was included in a book publication offering in-depth assessments of experiences with environmental tax reforms and the benefits such a reform could bring about when implemented at a larger scale throughout Europe.