Businesses, cities, states, universities and churches are striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect the Earth's climate. A new transatlantic survey by Michael Northrop reveals a multitude of initiatives, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Michael Northrop directs the Sustainable Development grantmaking program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) in New York City and is the author of this paper.

R. Andreas Kraemer, the Director of Ecologic Institute, presented a first assessment of recent developments concerning the potential liberalisation of water services in Europe.

Ecologic's forest expert Richard Tarasofsky published an article in the Policy Trend Report 2001/2002 by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

The main objective of the HarmoniCOP (project duration 2002 – 2005) project, which was funded under the 5th European framework for Research, was to increase the understanding of participatory river basin management in Europe. It caters to the paradigm that river basin management can only be effective and sustainable if the actors at each level and in each phase and sector become engaged in a social learning process.

Options for a co-operation between UNEP/Mediterranean Action Plan and the EU initiative EUROMED are now presented in an Ecologic Brief. The Brief points out ways for an improved environmental integration and the sustainable development of the Mediterranean region.

The results of the workshop entitled "The Architecture of the Global System of Governance of Trade and Sustainable Development" that took place on 9 and 10 December 2002 in Berlin have been published in an Ecologic Brief. Based on the background paper of the workshop and the debates which took place during the discussions, this brochure seeks to give an overview of the complex issue of the global governance of trade and sustainable development and to convey to a wider audience the main questions facing the research community.

On 21 May, the Kyiv report "Europe's environment: The third assessment" was released in the run-up to the meeting of Environment ministers from the wider European continent in Kyiv, Ukraine, which was organised by the UN's Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE). Chapter 13 dealing with progress in managing the environment was drawn up with the joint help of Ecologic and IEEP London.

Simon Marr and Sebastian Oberthür have together with Christoph Bail co-authored a chapter which has been published in one of the leading German handbooks on European and German environmental law. The chapter, entitled "Climate protection and law", appears in the Handbuch zum europäischen und deutschen Umweltrecht, which is edited by Hans-Werner Rengeling.

The Doctoral Thesis of Simon Marr, lawyer with Ecologic Legal, has been published. The purpose of this study is to examine the present status of implementation of the precautionary principle in the law of the sea and to extract evidence of its acceptance as part of customary international law. The thesis examines the precautionary principle in the law of the sea. The precautionary principle is a risk management tool for policy makers which has been broadly implemented in international environmental law in a variety of different sectors and formulations.

The book "Participation of Non-Governmental Organisations in International Environmental Co-operation" analyses the importance of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the relationship between the legal basis and the practical influence of NGOs in different areas of international environmental governance.

Transatlantic co-operation is crucial in advancing international environmental policy-making. A new book on international environmental policy-making and transatlantic co-operation addresses this subject. The book documents the papers and discussion of an international expert workshop held in the run-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Europe and the European Union are facing profound changes and the importance of environmental policy is growing. In response to this, Daimler-Benz Research & Technology has asked Ecologic to prepare a report on trends in European environmental policy.

On 15 October 2003, Wenke Hansen, Ecologic, one of the main authors of the comparative study on the international water sector presented some key messages of this study. On the occasion of the publication of the study in five volumes and the European Commission's Communication on the Internal Market Strategy the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) and the Austrian Association of Cities had invited to the event at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union in Brussels "Liberalisation of water for Europe's citizens? – The Internal Market Strategy in the light of European experiences".

Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf focuses in his contributing article on the influence of European environmental interest groups on European environmental Policy.

The main conclusions and results of a study exploring functions, rules and practices of NGO participation in international environmental co-operation are presented in an Ecologic Brief. This Ecologic Brief identifies a number of options for a strengthened participation of NGOs in international environmental governance and is intended to contribute to the related international discussions.