Ecologic Institute contributed to the main survey of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU) for 2011. In its analysis for the WBGU, Ecologic Institute analyzed the American, British, Chinese, German, Japanese and South Korean economic and financial stimulus packages and their environmental implications. The analysis is available for download.

<p>&#13; At the conference on "Water and Climate Change in the MENA-Region", organised by GIZ and BMZ, Rodrigo Vidaurre, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation on policies that address the link between human security, water conflicts, and Climate Change. Jennifer Möller-Gulland, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, held a further presentation on innovative benefit assessment methodologies to assess quantitative and monetary benefits from improved water resources use.</p>&#13;

"Germany may well be regarded as the nation where the endgame of nuclear power began." Economics, risk assessments and public pressure lead many countries to halt nuclear power and shift to green energy. After an Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute explains in the AICGS Advisor the German decision and its impact on nuclear proliferation.

Dominic Marcellino, Fellow Ecologic Institute Washington, and Max Grünig, Fellow Ecologic Institute Berlin, published an article on cost recovery in line with the EU Water Framework Directive and related experiences in Germany. The text appeared in the March/April special edition of L’Acqua, an Italian journal for water issues. The paper builds off previous work done for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

<p>The goal of this project was to examine the 27 National Reform Programmes prepared by the Member States as part of the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy and in preparation of the first European Semester. The Committee of the Regions was conducting this analysis together with Ecologic Institute and its partners WU/RIMAS, ICLEI and PSI to examine to what extent the NRPs reflect the roles, inputs, and needs of local and regional authorities. The project report "The Role of Local and Regional Authorities in the Europe 2020 National Reform Programmes" is available for download.</p>&#13;

<p> The goal of this project is to revise and streamline the scoring criteria for the Monterey Bay Aquarium&rsquo;s sustainable Seafood Watch Program (SFW). The SFW, albeit not without its critics, has been successful in engaging producers and buyers in improving their practices and raising their awareness towards sourcing their fisheries and aquaculture products from sustainably managed operations.&nbsp; Ecologic Institute Washington DC is helping to develop quantitative scoring mechanisms to streamline the process and make the assessments more transparent.</p>

For the third time, the ICAP Training Course on Emissions Trading brought together experts from emerging economies and developing countries to introduce emissions trading as a tool for climate protection and discuss possibilities for implementing such schemes in developing countries. The event took place in Beijing, China, from 23 May to 1 June 2011, and was the first of its kind held outside of Europe. Twenty-seven decision makers from eight Asian countries attended the course, which was led by Michael Mehling, Benjamin Görlach and Miriam Schröder.

The report provides an overview of the environmental relevance of the largest fields of expenditure within the EU budget. It assesses the sustainability level of key budget items in the EU sectoral policies. It also provides recommendations in the context of a potential reform of subsidies that would contribute to the alignment of the EU budget towards a more sustainable growth as called in the EU 2020 Strategy.

Together with more than 10 partners from the EU and the Middle East, Ecologic Institute is carrying out the EU-funded research project on "Climate change, hydro-conflicts and human security" (CLICO). CLICO investigates how climate change influences water availability and, consequently, human security and conflicts in the Mediterranean region. The 2nd CLICO policy brief, written by Ecologic Institute, is available for download.

Tanja Srebotnjak, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, contributed to a project undertaken by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) to estimate net migration by ecosystem over the four decades from 1970 to 2010. The project report is available for download.