In March 2022, at the resumed fifth meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly, UN Member States adopted the historic decision to start negotiating a global treaty to combat plastic pollution. As national delegations and relevant stakeholders in Asia start preparing for the upcoming negotiations, this report by Linda Mederake and Doris Knoblauch (both Ecologic Institute), aims to provide an analysis of the region’s opportunities to end single-use plastics (SUPs) pollution through the development of this new global treaty.

As part of the implementation of its NDC, the Chinese government is focusing on further developing its climate legislation, which includes the design of a Chinese climate legislation framework. Through the climate legislation workstream of the project "Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)", the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports the Chinese side by strengthening exchange between experts and stakeholders from the two countries and providing information on German and EU experience in this field.

This document provides a summary of the online dialogue forum "Private Households", which took place on 31 May 2022. The focus of the event was the question of outreach: "How do we engage the broader society on the issue of food waste in Germany"? Over 90 participants from civil society, science, administration, and initiatives exchanged experiences with the Dialogue Forum team and three speakers, who had practical experience on reaching and addressing diverse target groups provided short keynotes on their lessons learned, practical experiences, and current projects.

The German Federal Constitutional Court's decision of March 2021 declared the Climate Change Act partially unconstitutional because it did not sufficiently protect fundamental rights. While the Court upheld the Act's objective of climate neutrality by 2050 and emission budgets until 2030, it held that the Climate Change Act violated fundamental rights for the time after 2030: The specific emissions budgets until 2030 entailed that strict measures would likely be required after 2030 in order to achieve climate neutrality. The Climate Change Act failed to sufficiently address in advance how this would affect individual freedoms. Dr. Ralph Bodle and Dr. Stephan Sina provide an overview of the main findings of the decision as well as the ensuing amendments to the Climate Change Act, which were passed within just a few months after the decision and are subject to new constitutional challenges.

Space and water heating accounts for almost one third of the European final energy consumption. Thus, the sector needs special attention in the decarbonisation process. This study aims to provide a better information basis for policy design targeting decarbonisation of the space and water heating sector.

Ecologic Institute developed the stories of Zornitza, Piotr, Alexandru, Beata and Ana to illustrate the different challenges and needs of climate change adaptation experts in a storytelling format. They show how these experts find specific data and information sets on Climate-ADAPT to assess climate change risks, develop policies and plans, adaptation solutions including using green infrastructure options. The stories show how the characters use Climate-ADAPT in a basic way, by following clear steps or using alternative options.

The Berlin Energy Transition Act obliges district administrations to both set up an energy management system and appoint energy officers for their property areas. But what does this mean in concrete terms for the implementation of the energy transition in the districts? What are the tasks and what influence do the energy officers have? Where are the pitfalls, and where is there a need for action and improvement? We discussed these questions with our guests in the twelfth edition of Wandelwecker.

This documentation summarizes the main interim results of the four-hour online workshop "Targets and Indicators for the Protein Transition in Germany" with 35 experts.

Effective marine environmental management and biodiversity conservation (including protection and restoration) are fundamental to achieving the transformation to a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive low-carbon sustainable ocean economy. MarineSABRES' simple SES approach aims to show how we can protect and maintain the natural structure and processes of marine ecosystems while simultaneously delivering the societal goods and benefits that people rely on. The approach specifically aims to improve uptake of EBM and strengthen interventions and measures for the conservation of coastal and marine areas.

Ecologic Institute is contributing to a study aiming to map the implementation choices of Member States in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plans. It also aims to assess the joint effort of Member States towards agricultural, rural development and environmental policy goals. This study is part of the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP, which supports the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and Member States in the evaluation and implementation of a performance-based monitoring and evaluation framework for the CAP from 2022.

Not democratically elected, but popular: Citizen councils can strengthen public participation in the EU, but they must not be overrated. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses in the IPG Journal how citizen councils can be involved in EU decision-making in the future.

On 31 May 2022, more than 90 actors dealing with food waste reduction in Germany met for an exchange on how to upscale their target audience and reach out to diverse groups of people. The online event was part of the Dialogue Forum "Private Households" that is part of the German Strategy for Food Waste Reduction.

In this Ariadne publication, experts from Ecologic Institute, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Stiftung Umweltenergierecht, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research and IER Stuttgart analyzed various options for the relief and level of the CO2 price – and identified advantages and disadvantages as well as implementation requirements of different design options. The focus is on two key political points of contention, where scientific findings can prevent an impending hardening of the position and thus promote a consensus that is conducive to climate protection.

Experts from Ecologic Institute, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Stiftung Umweltenergierecht, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research and IER Stuttgart analyzed various options for the relief and level of the CO2 price – and identified advantages and disadvantages as well as implementation requirements of different design options. The focus is on two key political points of contention, where scientific findings can prevent an impending hardening of the position and thus promote a consensus that is conducive to climate protection. This German-language abridged version summarizes the findings.

On the 12 and 13 May 2022, the INTERLACE project held the first Latin American Cities Talk Nature Engagement Event in San José, Costa Rica. The project is led by Ecologic Institute.