Together with the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), Ecologic Institute implemented a training course on the design and implementation of emissions trading in Colombia. From 12 to 21 November 2019, the course brought together 27 participants from all across Latin America and the Caribbean, representing national governments in the region as well as academia, think tanks, business and industry, and intergovernmental organisations.

Leading institutes from the fields of sustainability and futures studies welcome the development of a "Future Strategy for Research and Innovation" by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. At the same time, they point out that, while the presented draft provides significant momentum, it does not yet fully consider the societal challenges and the urgency to act.

This paper provides an overview of the process of developing an LTS and its challenges, examines the support available for countries undergoing this process, and presents some ideas on how the G20 could raise the political profile of the strategies. It has been included as input into the T20 process preceding the 2020 summit.

All Member States have the same obligation to produce national LTSs under EU law. A team of researchers has now analysed the state of these documents and their relevance in national policy-making for the first time across the EU. This event presents the most important insights from this analysis and seeks to start a conversation with all relevant stakeholders on how to improve their effective use.

This report presents the findings from an assessment of 22 long-term strategies (LTSs) of the EU Member States available as of March 2022. It is complemented by a briefing that summarizes the key findings and recommendations. The analysis looked at two distinct qualities of strategies: the vision of a low-emission future represented in the pathways and projections of the LTS as well as the preparation and use of the strategy as a tool to guide policy decisions, in other words its relevance in national climate policy.

Strict regulation does not have to stifle the emerging market for green hydrogen — just the opposite, write Benjamin Görlach and Dr. Michael Jakob of Ecologic Institute. They argue that a unified system for monitoring, certifying and tracking green hydrogen production and trade is key to all this. The op-ed can be accessed at the EURACTIV website.

The European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO) aims to help ensure the EU achieves climate neutrality by providing scientifically rigorous analysis of economy-wide progress and an independent check on EU climate policy processes. ECNO analyses the data underlying a comprehensive set of progress indicators to present a unique, up-to-date picture of the whole economy, and identify any gaps in data collection, benchmarking, and monitoring that need to be addressed. Ecologic Institute has developed an indicator framework in a previous project that ECNO's methodology is based on.

From 7 to 19 December 2022, the international community is scheduled to come together to discuss the future of the Convention on Biological Diversity. One of the key items that will be negotiated at the upcoming COP15 is the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In the light of these upcoming negotiations on 2 November 2022, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at New York University School of Law and the German Consulate General in New York organized an event with experts from New York City and Berlin to discuss the role of local governments in implementing global biodiversity targets, including the ways in which cities can support urban biodiversity. Sandra Naumann, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, presented Berlin's strategy to promote urban biodiversity and participated in the final panel.

Representatives from EU institutions and experts from 10 EU Member States discussed the Conference on the Future of Europe (CFE), and its impacts on EU climate and energy policies. Participants also discussed whether citizens' panels should become a standard feature of EU decision-making. The event concluded the project "The Future of the EU – Make Climate Action its Trademark", funded by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI).

This webinar was jointly organised by the projects: INTERLACE, CONEXUS, REGREEN and CLEARING HOUSE as an official side-event of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2022. The webinar brought together about 500 representatives from cities, regions and local authorities, city network representatives, policy-makers, researcher, civil society and experts on nature-based solutions and urban ecosystem restoration from Europe, China and Latin America.

The term "populism" is ubiquitous in political debate nowadays. But not only is the term meaningless - it poses a real problem for democracy and the political debate, writes Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in the IPG. The article is available online.

The German Environment Agency (UBA) is pleased to announce the 6th European Resources Forum – "Transformative approaches for sustainable resource use and a circular economy."

In an interview with "Bürger schaffen Wissen", the central platform for citizen science in Germany, Linda Mederake (Ecologic Institute) and Tim Kiessling (Kiel Science Factory) talk about the history of the citizen science project "Plastic Pirates", their experiences in working with school classes and their expectations for the ECSA Conference 2022.

In her presentation, titled "Evaluating environmental policies with citizen science data? An example from the Plastic Pirates investigating plastic pollution of rivers", Linda Mederake (Ecologic Institute) presented an approach to evaluate the Single-Use Plastics Directive with the help of citizen science data.

The Brussels Research Tour aims to offer insights into EU policy to tackle the energy crisis and its implications on the bloc's move to climate neutrality. In meetings with experts, policymakers, business and NGO representatives, the tour will provide essential background on EU climate and energy policymaking and cover topics of relevance to national policies.