<p>&#13; With Arabia in turmoil and nuclear tragedy at Fukushima, Japan, the US rethinks energy dependence on unstable or hostile parts of the world, and looks anew at sustainable energy options.  R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute presented German and EU experience at the University of Pennsylvania's International Relations Program on 15 March 2011.</p>&#13;

<p> Europe can shift to a low-carbon economy, enjoy secure energy supply, environmentally sustainable development, and rising employment.&nbsp; On 10 March 2011, the European Commission presented its &quot;Roadmap 2050&quot; in Berlin, Germany, exposing divisions within the German Federal Government.&nbsp; R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute moderated the event.</p>

With the plenary speech of the 3rd bioenergy forum Dr. Bernhard Dreher from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and Jessica Löhndorf, Fellow at Ecologic Institute introduce the European sustainability requirements for biofuels and vegetable oils, which were transposed into German legislation in 2009. Germany was the first member state to implement the sustainability certification in Europe. The authors explain their practical implementation in Germany.

The three-year research project "InContext" identified framework conditions enabling societal transition towards an ecologically sound, economically successful and culturally diverse future. Action at local and individual levels is vital to bring the concept of sustainable development to life. However, policies aimed at initiating such local and individual transitions towards sustainability can often not achieve the desired change. Thus, the EU research project InContext has set out to investigate the conditions for creating sustainability transitions at the local and individual levels.

This joint event was part of two FP7 projects: OPEN:EU and INSTREAM and was organised by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and Ecologic Institute Berlin. It brought together experts, statisticians, policy makers and representatives of civil society organisations to discuss and share experiences on how to improve the use of indicators to assess progress on economic and sustainability goals.

In its Europe 2020 strategy, the EU has set itself the challenge of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, including the shift to a low carbon economy in 2020. To map out ex-ante pathways for the low-carbon transition and to monitor Member States’ progress towards this objective, new monitoring tools are needed. Together with Belgian, British and Polish researchers, Ecologic Institute has identified and evaluated options for monitoring the structural change to a low-carbon economy.

Green Infrastructure has emerged as a valuable tool to enhance ecosystem resilience and to contribute to biodiversity conservation and benefit human populations. Ecologic Institute and GHK produced a comprehensive overview of the design, implementation and cost efficiency of green infrastructure projects in the EU to solidify the understanding of this concept.

In response to growing climate change pressures, ecosystem-based approaches have emerged as a promising strategy to increase the resilience of ecosystems and support sustainable livelihoods. Ecologic Institute and the Environmental Change Institute examined the success factors leading to and obstacles hindering the implementation and integration of such approaches in climate change strategies. The report is available for download.

The economic crisis starting in 2008 stopped the momentum of transformation towards renewable energies and sustainable transport systems, but also provided opportunities for sustainable development.  The 7th Conference of the British-German Environment Forum (BGEF) meeting at Wilton Park on 24-26 February 2011 investigated the potential for green growth and moving economic policy Beyond GDP by increasing resource efficiency and decoupling of economic development from resource depletion and pollution. R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute is an initiator and coordinator of the BGEF.&#13;

<p>&#13; Ingmar von Homeyer, Ecologic Institute Senior Fellow and Head of the Ecologic Institute representation in Brussels, provided an assessment of the Thematic Strategies as the most important ‘tool’ of the European Union’s 6th Environment Action Programme (6EAP) at a conference organised by Brussels Environment in the context of the 2010 Belgian EU Presidency.</p>&#13;

Emily McGlynn, Transatlantic Fellow at Ecologic Institute, regularly writes as a Policy Fellow at Americans for Energy Leadership, a Washington DC-based think tank. In the article "Arctic Oil and Gas: The Emerging Question" McGlynn discusses the latest developments in Arctic hydrocarbon exploitation and the need for improvements in both technology and regulation.