The committees of the European Parliament play a critical role in ensuring the effectiveness of EU policy during both the development of legislation and policy and its subsequent implementation. The Committee on Foreign Affairs (Affaires étrangères, AFET) is one of the 20 Committees of the European Parliament and is, among others, responsible for the Common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Ecologic Institute was leading a consortium of six institutes given a framework contract to provide the European Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committees with independent expert advice on a range of issues relating to developmental and environmental policy. During the course of this project, standard briefings, ad-hoc briefings, studies and workshops were conducted.

As the impacts of climate change and global demand for marine resources have increased, the development of an integrated, holistic marine governance framework has become a key goal for both the EU and US. Recent policy events on both sides of the Atlantic provide a window of opportunity to significantly improve marine governance in national and international waters. To this end, the Ecologic Institute led a transatlantic project team that convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue allowing experts from the EU, US and other regions to develop best practices for integrated marine management.

<p>&#13; The 2010 Senior Congressional Staff Study Tour of Germany brought Chiefs of Staff of members of the US Congress to Berlin and Cologne to take stock of the political situation in Germany after the federal election in September 2009 and before the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2010. On invitation by The United States Association of Former Members of Congress (USAFMC), R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute led a discussion on the current trends and outlook for energy policy in Germany and the European Union.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; In celebration of the 10th anniversary of its Center for Sustainable Enterprise, the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School hosted a conference on Global Innovations in Energy: How Business Is Addressing Climate Change in Chapel Hill, NC, on 20-21 April 2010.  R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute provided a European perspective to a plenary session on The Energy Policy and Regulation Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities.</p>&#13; <p>&#13; </p>

<p>Ecologic Institute implemented an ongoing project evaluation of the LIAISE network of excellence to assess the outcomes and the impacts of the LIAISE Network of Excellence. The main purpose of this was to identify and exploit opportunities to bridge the existing gap between the research and the policy community in the field of Impact Assessment (IA) and to improve the use of IA tools in policy making.</p>

<p>&#13; Christiane Gerstetter, Fellow Ecologic Legal, provided an introduction to various international agreements to a Palestinian audience during a workshop in Ramallah on 29-30 March 2010. The workshop was convened by the Environmental Quality Authority of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Its aim was to raise awareness among Palestinians about international environmental agreements.</p>

This article by Christiane Gerstetter, Dominic Marcellino, and Elena von Sperber explores the state of the climate technology transfer negotiations following the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. The article appears in the Spring 2010 edition of the journal Carbon and Climate Law Review.

<p> Ecologic Institute was invited to participate in a conference on &quot;Climate Change Policy: Lessons from the European Experience&quot; hosted on 25 and 26 March 2010 by the Center for European Studies at Rutgers University as part of &quot;Lessons from Europe&quot;, a two-year program of events exploring what US policy-makers and citizens can learn from the experiences of European democracies in addressing 21st century policy challenges.</p>

<p> International climate negotiations featured in a panel discussion on 2 December 2009 at the Center for German and European Studies of Brandeis University in Boston, where the Ecologic Institute was asked to provide expert insights on the likely outcome of the Copenhagen climate change summit later that month. Titled &ldquo;Copenhagen Climate-Change Conference: What is the Deal? Global Perspectives on a Failed Global Climate Change Agreement&rdquo;, this panel attracted a large number of participants to discuss the prospects for a legally binding climate change agreement.</p>

<p> On 24 November 2009, the Ecologic Institute was invited to address students in a lecture series titled &ldquo;Generation Green: Germany and the Environment&rdquo;&nbsp; organized by the Center for German Studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The course explored how and why Germany&#39;s Green movement addressed&nbsp; pressing environmental challenges a generation before the release of Al&nbsp; Gore&#39;s &quot;An Inconvenient Truth&quot;, allowing students to consider how specific cultural contexts shape personal attitudes, public policies and&nbsp; technological advances. Michael Mehling shared insights on &ldquo;Germany&#39;s Ecological Tax Reform: Perspectives from a Think Tank&rdquo;.</p>

<p> At the Institute for European Studies of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Michael Mehling of the Ecologic Institute joined a panel on &ldquo;Post- Kyoto Strategies Compared: European and North American Pathways to Low Carbon Market Economies&rdquo; held on 30 and 31 October 2009. Participants analyzed the emergence of particular shapes and designs of Post-Kyoto strategies on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Ecologic Institute contributed a unique transatlantic perspective to the comparative discussion.</p>

The project expands and develops the development of the EU emission trading system (ETS) and its implementation in Germany. EU legislation is planned or already adopted introducing major changes to the existing ETS, including new allocation rules, the inclusion of aviation and the CCS directive. Ecologic Institute provides legal expertise for the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the preparation and implementation of new concepts and legislation.