The aim of the EU's Natura 2000 Network is to protect Europe's most valuable and threatened species and habitats. This project developed a methodological framework for assessing the overall economic value of the benefits provided by the Natura 2000 network. A first estimate suggests that the benefits could be between €200 and €300 billion per year at present, which equals 2% to 3% of EU GDP. The project report is available for download.

In preparation for the Rio+20 conference, which took place in June 2012, the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) published a guide for citizens. The publication discusses trends and statistics concerning sustainable development from the viewpoint of Anne, a 17 year old student. Anne seeks answers to everyday questions and tries to find out if Europe has actually moved towards sustainable development over the past 20 years.

Ecologic Institute is proud to be launching its 2012 Arctic Summer College, a virtual course and network aiming to strengthen Arctic communication and build a lasting, policy-oriented network of Arctic professionals. Policy briefs and videos of speaker presentations will be made publicly available on the Arctic Summer College website following each weekly seminar.

The Ecologic Institute report is based, inter alia, on over 70 interviews conducted with policy-makers and experts in Ethiopia, Morocco, Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT), as well as representatives of the EU and the UN. The report assesses not only the effectiveness of existing measures for addressing hydro-climatic risks, but also collects perspectives on how these policies should develop.

During the 2nd VDI conference on biogas Dr. Wolfgang Urban from Ecologic Institute presented technical options for a grid-compatible biogas feed such as conditioning of liquefied natural gas, the formation of heating value districts, computational heating value tracking and additional gas supply. He classified the different options and discussed the economic aspects. The presentation slides are available for download.

This infographic was developed as training material in a course on the theme of "energy for development", that is targeted at development cooperation professionals, which will encounter energy issues in their work outside of the home country.

Werner, Beate; Robert Collins et. al. 2012: Towards efficient use of water resources in Europe. EEA Report | No 1/2012, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.

Statistical measurement of income poverty as a relative concept is very specific to the EU. Yet besides this classical case there are various factors that make us think further about the relative nature of poverty. Some of the examples refer to statistics on how national income is distributed throughout the society, how living expenses differ across the countries as well as rural and urban areas, and how differently Europeans feel about poverty in their cities.

EU statistics depict poverty in a particular way, which goes beyond the income issues. At risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion indicator is an ample example of it. To understand why, one should know what is the rationale behind it and how important it is, that in the EU poverty and social exclusion go hand in hand.

EU progress towards sustainable development goes side by side with fostering green growth. Here resource productivity has an important role to play. Yet its measurement could have some interpretation pitfalls and it is important to be aware of them.

This video is one out of four that were developed and produced within the project EU sustainable development indicators: video production, co-ordinated by the Ecologic Institute.