The unique structure of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) makes it difficult to grant it a legal status in Germany that matches its importance. The project renders a legal opinion analysing international, national and German rules and practice, and drafts a statutory instrument for endowing IUCN with a privileged status.

<p>&#13; Integrated sustainability assessment is a key element for advancing sustainable development by assessing the economic, environmental and social impacts of policy proposals. While the EU Commission has committed to producing high quality impact assessment, Anneke von Raggamby evaluates the availability and actual use in EU Commission Impact Assessment practice at the OECD workshop on Sustainable Assessment Methodologies.</p>&#13;

On 27 February 2008, an Ecologic Dinner Dialogue was held in honour of Suedeen Kelly, Commissioner at the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In her initial remarks, Suedeen Kelly pointed out that many electric utilities in the United States are indeed aware of the potential new grid technologies have – the “fairy kiss” by information technology seems to be happening. However, the deployment of smart grids is not going to happen on its own.

Thomas Bosecke critically evaluates coastal protection measures of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea according to an extensive analysis of the biogeographic conditions. He proposes a cautious approach and the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). The proposed solutions are then reviewed for their legal enforceability with regard to land use planning, nature conservation, property rights and different questions concerning regulatory approval.

Water scarcity and drought was one of the main environmental policy priorities for the EU Presidency of Portugal in 2007. The Informal Council of Environment Ministers on "Water Scarcity and Droughts" on 31 August and 1 September 2007 in Lisbon was designed to further the debate in the European Union. A paper and presentation by R. Andreas Kraemer supplemented a background paper provided by the Portuguese Presidency and the European Commission "Addressing the challenge of water scarcity and droughts in the European Union" of 18 July 2007.

Pharmaceuticals in the environment is an issue receiving growing attention. Over the past few years, the amount of research on the potential environmental effects and risks of pharmaceuticals has greatly increased. It thus becomes essential to point out key issues to be addressed in order to increase the effectiveness of research. The EU project KNAPPE aims to identify relevant priority actions to be taken in order to reduce the occurrence, impacts and risk of pharmaceutical products in the aquatic environment.

<p>&#13; At a panel discussion, Stephanie Schlegel, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the current achievements and crucial discussion points of renewable energy politics in Europe. The presentation focused on the developments in the context of the "Climate action and renewable energy package" - the recently published legislative proposal of the European Commission.</p>&#13;

This article describes the important changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act due to the amendment within the framework of the Integrated Energy and Climate Programme of the German government. The article is published in issue 3, volume 19, Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht.

On 25 February 2008, an Ecologic Dinner Dialogue was held in Berlin in honour of Mark Halle, European Director of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) as well as Global Director of Trade &amp; Investment. Mark Halle introduced key aspects of the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in international environmental governance (IEG). He pointed out that environmental issues for governments often come second, leaving NGOs as important actors in the field of IEG.  The decisive question of how to move environmental issues to the centre of political decision making still needs to be tackled.

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) identifies targets for several core environmental policy categories and measures how close countries come to meet them. Ecologic compiled and analysed the data sources of the EPI for Germany, and assessed the methodologies of the Index. Based on this assessment, both the scientific and political relevance of the index for German environmental policy performance were determined. The report was published by the German Federal Environment Agency in UBA-Texte 09/08.