In this article Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Ecologic Senior Fellow, discusses the need for international environmental governance reform, the advantages and disadvantages of creating a United Nations Environment Organization (UNEO) and its potential in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The article is available for download.

<img alt="Jonathan Wiener" hspace="4" src="Download/dinner_dialogue/2006/wiener_80_80.jpg" align="right" vspace="4" border="0" />The Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honour of Dr. Jonathan B. Wiener focused on the question of how national interests can be engaged to establish a comprehensive and effective international climate change regime. The dinner's discussion showed that a future system can only be ecologically effective and economically efficient if all major emitting countries participate and show a common effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, Dr. Wiener made clear that major constraints of the current system must be overcome to achieve this.

Germany is facing great societal changes. In many regions, Germany’s population is shrinking, and work forces are decreasing. Demographic change is challenging Germany, leading to economic and social shifts and creating new social divisions in many regions and cities. While a growing population has long been understood as a threat to the environment, it is now clear that a shrinking population does not automatically improve the environmental situation. "The Bottom Line", edited by Volker Hauff and Günther Bachmann, with contributions from Ecologic and the Berlin-Institute, examines the assets and debts of Germany’s future inheritance.

This chapter in the Handbook for the EU-Water Framework Directive addresses the causes of hydromorphological shortcomings and the consequences of hydraulic engineering interventions on the ecological status of water bodies. The authors, Stephan von Keitz and R. Andreas Kraemer, analyse the possibilities to bring navigational interests, the use of hydropower, and flood control measures in line with the goals of the Water Framework Directive.

In this chapter of the Handbook for the EU-Water Framework Directive, Stephan von Keitz and R. Andreas Kraemer present the possibilities for diverse stakeholder involvement – including agriculture, industry, water, transportation policy and others. The options are organised into short- and long-term implementation recommendations.

What are the specific administrative challenges of the Water Framework Directive. How should its administrative responses be structured – with respect to organisation, personnel, and information technology? What role do the pilot projects play in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive? Peter Kessler, Ecologic Senior Policy Advisor, addresses these issues in the Handbook for the EU-Water Framework Directive.

Successful and cost-effective implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) will depend on a deep understanding of the WFD’s economic dimensions. Eduard Interwies, Britta Pielen, Benjamin Görlach, and R. Andreas Kraemer have co-authored a chapter about these critical economic considerations and implications in a policy handbook on the WFD. Drawing from the 2004 economic analysis of the WFD, the authors examine the current and future challenges of integrating a full economic perspective into the WFD’s implementation.

This policy handbook for the EU-Water Framework Directive (WFD) has been published as a 2nd, fully updated edition in 2006. It comprises 9 chapters from 37 authors – five of them members of the Ecologic Team. The handbook covers all steps of the WFD implementation, with topics ranging from the analysis of pressures and impacts to the selection of measures, and from the integration of nature conservation requirements to the designation of heavily modified water bodies. It aims to provide hands-on guidance on all aspects of the WFD’s implementation in Germany for policymakers, academic scholars and civil society actors.

On invitation of DG Economic and Financial Affairs and DG Environment, Ingo Bräuer, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the use of Market Based Instruments in the field of nature conservation.

The project's objective is to identify optimal waste management strategies for three different European regions. A multidisciplinary (environmental, economic, social, legal) approach is applied in evaluating different strategies. Ecologic will cover the socio-economic assessment of the identified strategies.

EU Member States are increasingly using market-based instruments such as taxes, subsidies or tradable permits to conserve Biodiversity. Ecologic has been commissioned by DG Environment to analyse the current use of Market Based Instruments (MBIs) like taxes, fees and charges to protect biodiversity. Based on this, Ecologic collaborated with its project partners in preparing a report that evaluates the success and failure of these instruments and assesses their potential for wider use in different contexts in the future. The report is available for download.

The United Nations (UN) are in a crisis, not least because of their lack of democratic legitimacy: too many of the member countries are non-democratic, and internal procedures in the UN are unnecessarily closed to public debate and scrutiny. A panel of eminent experts led by Fernando Enrique Cardoso made proposals for reform. In a contribution to a book on the rule of international law in a globalised world, R. Andreas Kraemer assesses the panel's proposals.