The United Kingdom put Africa and the Millennium Development Goals high on its agenda for its presidency of the G8 in 2005. In a discussion with Camilla Toulmin - Director of the Institute for International Environment and Development - the impacts of this initiative, its potential and possible implementation challenges were spelled out and debated. The Dinner Dialogue took place in Berlin on 6 June 2005.

As the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2008 to 2012 is drawing near, it is becoming evident that some countries will face major difficulties in fulfilling their commitments under the EU Burden Sharing Agreement, while other countries are already close to achieving their targets. What is the motivation of countries that carry out an effective climate policy, and how do countries that are far away from achieving their reduction targets justify their behaviour? In her essay on European climate policy, Helen Lückge looks at these questions from an economic point of view.

This project aims to identify options for applying the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) in EU environmental policy. In recent years the 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.

The compliance cost that environmental regulation imposes on businesses plays a central role in the debate on economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. However, on closer inspection these costs often turn out to be lower than originally anticipated. As part of a a European consortium, Ecologic reviewed ex-post analyses of the costs imposed on business because of European environmental legislation, and compared these to ex-ante estimates. The project reports conclude that some ex-ante overestimation is inevitable, and that the new EU regulatory flexibility could make accurate predictions even more difficult. But it nevertheless proposes a series of ways in which accuracy could be improved.

As the impacts of climate change are beginning to become visible, there is growing concern about the possible costs of inaction. However, before adequate assessments of the costs of climate change impacts can be made, there are various methodological questions to consider. As part of Ecologic’s framework contract with the EEA on environmental-economic activities, FEEM, IVM and Ecologic perform a review of studies on the costs of climate change impacts and give methodological recommendations for future evaluations.

Ecologic has been commissioned by the Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER) to develop practicable proposals for implementing the economic aspects of the Water Framework Directive in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on the possible role of economic valuation studies. The now available study deals mainly with the assessment of disproportionate costs (linked to the Art. 4 exemptions), while also addressing the selection of measures (Art. 11). It recommends a staged and flexible approach, which takes account of the specific conditions in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The project objective is to provide expert policy advice to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the field of international climate policy. The topic areas of Ecologic are the institutional design and organisation of the international negotiation process in the context of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, as well as the further elaboration of the compliance system of the Kyoto Protocol. Furthermore the project analyse various questions relating to the future development of the international climate change regime beyond the year 2012.

Floods have caused substantial economic damage in recent years in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The costs of the 2002 Elbe flood alone exceeded 10 billion Euro. Thirty experts from science and public administration gathered at the Federal Environment Agency in Berlin on 10 May 2005 to discuss the role of economic instruments for flood management and the economic assessment of flood management strategies. In his lecture, Benjamin Görlach presented some selected examples of flood management in Europe and discussed the use of economic appraisal tools in the different countries.

The Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (ÖWAV) organised the ÖWAV-Forum 2005 on "Water Sector and Politics – Structures, Controls and Financing". The aim of the conference was to discuss the future of the Austrian water sector, in particular the new legal, economic and environmental regulations. R. Andreas Kraemer presented the trends at European level and their potential effects on the municipal water sector.

The challenge of developing robust methodologies to undertake ex ante and/or ex post sustainability assessments of trade policies remains largely unmet. In cooperation with further members of the CAT-E network Ecologic analyses and develops methodological approaches for sustainable impact assessments for specific trade areas.

During the summer semester of 2005, Dr. Norbert Kopytziok is directing the course "Ecology and Design" at the College of Architecture, Media and Design of the Berlin University of the Arts. The course focuses on the debate around ecological efficiency which has entered, over the last few years, the area of ecological product construction and Eco-design.