"A Bridge to the Future: the High-Level Trans-Atlantic Dialogue on Climate Change" is a series of meetings bringing together a selected group of distinguished policy players from diverse backgrounds to explore possibilities for finding common ground on energy and climate policy across the Atlantic. Markus Knigge, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, participated in the second session of this dialogue, which was held in Washington, DC on 20 and 21 September 2005.

Public acceptance of renewable energies is fundamental to further increasing their share in the overall energy supply. Ecologic organised a series of five future labs to investigate public acceptance at the regional level and to elaborate policy recommendations on how to generate further support for renewables.

During a workshop conducted by Ecologic Institute and the German Federal Environmental Agency on the matter of user charges on global environmental goods, Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf gave two speeches on the legal parameters of the introduction of a levy on airplane tickets as well as on emissions. Participants of the workshop were representatives of the German Government, of the EU-Commission as well as representatives of academia, industry and NGOs.

In his contribution for the symposium "Representation of Interests by NGOs at European Level" at the Bucerius Law School, Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf focused on the influence of European environmental interest groups on European environmental Policy. Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf analysed the institutional structures of European environmental NGOs and illustrated their success and deficits in influencing European environmental Policy. Therein, he focused on the Green G8, an umbrella association of European environmental NGOs and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).

A crucial factor for improving water management is the use of economic approaches and instruments. Eduard Interwies, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, illustrated the possible use of European experiences in the Mediterranean region.

European Commission plans indicate that the water supply should no longer be subject to municipal self-administration, but instead to European competition rules, and maybe even to a mandatory tendering procedure. Such a development would have far-reaching effects on the German drinking water supply, which is characterised by strong communal influence.

The Yearbook Ecology 2006 was published at the end of September 2005. Ecologic is one of the institutes supporting this yearbook. This year's focus is on the assessment of German environmental policy under the SPD and Greens, current conceptualisations of nature, genetically modified organisms, as well as environment and development issues.

“Engaging the Climate Behemoths: Transforming Energy Policy in America and China” was the topic of the Transatlantic Climate Dinner in honour of William K. Reilly, co-chair of the US National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP). The challenges for China’s coal driven energy sector as well as for the US, considering not only energy and climate protection needs but also the wish for economic growth, were discussed in the light of the new proposals of the NCEP. This Transatlantic Climate Dinner Dialogue took place on 6 September 2005 in Berlin.

In recent years, the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) has emerged as an increasingly important instrument of EU governance. Rather than relying on legally binding rules, the OMC works through the diffusion and evaluation of information. On 2 September 2005 Ingmar von Homeyer, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation on the application of the OMC in EU environmental policy at a workshop organised by the German Federal Office for Building and Spatial Planning (BBR) in Bonn.

This year’s International Summer Academy of the University of Greifswald, “Energy and the Environment”, took place in Irkutsk, Russia, from 21 to 27 August 2005. The focus was "Implementing Kyoto – Opportunities and Challenges for Transition Countries". Christine Lucha and Dr. Camilla Bausch were asked to give a lecture on their experiences in the gathering of CO2-data needed for the establishment of the German National Allocation Plan (NAP), as part of the implementation of the new European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

At the 45th Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), Benjamin Görlach and Eduard Interwies presented some research results on the valuation of environmental and resource costs in Germany. The lecture took place as part of a special session on water and economics in the frame of the 45th ERSA Congress, held at the Free University of Amsterdam. The special session was organised with support by the Dutch RIZA, and was chaired by Eduard Interwies.

The rise in the number of environmental institutions at the international level can be seen as a source of inconsistency within the implementation, enforcement, and rule-making processes of the environmental governance system. In this discussion paper, Ecologic Institute provides background information and several detailed maps to illustrate the spatial dispersion of the various institutions. The publication is available for download.

The worldwide emergence of public policy research organizations has occurred only recently. Compared to the US, the concept of "think tanks" is relatively new in Germany, and there are only a very limited number of institutions active in policy research and policy consulting. On 12 August 2005 Markus Knigge, Fellow at Ecologic, gave a presentation at the Bucerius Summer School on how Ecologic – one of the few German think tanks – contributes to environmental policy making on the German, European and international level.

The increased use of renewable resources has several positive environmental effects in comparison to the use of fossil fuel. Nevertheless, with an extended cultivation of energy crops and other renewable resources, there may also be negative consequences on soil quality. The evaluation of these effects is the focus of this project.

One of the key elements of the latest 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is compulsory compliance with environmental, food safety, animal welfare, and animal and plant health standards. Additionally it is required that farmers maintain their farmland in good agricultural and environmental condition as a condition for receiving direct payments. The project will focus on the investigation of the value-added resulting from introducing cross-compliance as a tool to improve compliance with existing standards; and the investigation of the cost implications and competition effects of compliance to EU standards on the world market.