Despite Germany's Circular Economy and Waste Management Act "Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetz" of 1996, the country's economy remains essentially linear. To transition from this status quo and lead the way towards a genuinely circular and resource-efficient economy, the development of a National Circular Economy Strategy (Nationale Kreislaufwirtschaftsstrategie) (NKWS) is now in progress. The project provides scientific support to the development of this strategy, as much as to the related debate.

The 2022 publication is Eurostat's sixth regular report monitoring progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.

What might social-ecological data governance look like that preserves individual rights and freedoms, ensures participation, and contributes to sustainable urban development? Is the data generated by daily mobility behaviour private or public in nature? What does this mean for data sharing or for targeted and sustainable use of the data? What roles can so-called intermediaries like a data trustee play? In the eleventh edition of Wandelwecker, our morning feature for a social and ecological metropolis, we discussed these questions with two renowned experts.

What kind of Europe do we want for the year 2035? This question is addressed by the EU initiative 'Conference on the Future of Europe', which enables European citizens to discuss their own ideas for Europe's future. Within the member states respective National Citizens' Panels, participants developed policy recommendations that were later passed on to the Conference. Ecologic Institute's Matthias Duwe gave a presentation on the topic of Climate and Environment at the Citizens' Forum in Germany on 15 January 2022.

The 2022 overview brochure accompanies Eurostat's sixth regular report monitoring progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The brochure is available for download.

The 2024 overview brochure accompanies Eurostat's eighth regular report monitoring progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The brochure is available for download.

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament adopted its reform proposals for the EU Climate Action Regulation last Monday. These contain important improvements, but overall they are disappointing, says Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in the Tagesspiegel.

The overall goal of SCALE-UP is to support regional multi-actor partnerships, consisting of private businesses, governments and policymakers, civil society organisations, and researchers in identifying and scaling-up innovative and sustainable bio-based value chains that build on regional resources. Through its approach, SCALE-UP will adapt, implement and evaluate tools to help regional actors to overcome the apparent bottlenecks towards fully exploiting bioeconomy potentials in their region.

On 11 May 2022, the RECIPES project has held its dissemination conference "Precaution for Responsible Innovation: New Options to Move Forward". At the conference, the RECIPES project presented and discussed some ideas on how to improve the use of the precautionary principle that were developed in consultation with several stakeholders at various points during the project period (the RECIPES guidance). The conference brought together around 90 participants from a range of different actor groups, including several of those who had participated in one or more of the RECIPES workshops. The conference was carried out in hybrid format, so the participants joined it on-site or online.

From 16 to 26 May 2022, the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) will convene a two-week ETS training course to provide basic training on emissions trading in Asian countries. Over two weeks consisting of eight course days, participants will learn the basic concepts and key elements of emissions trading through a mix of presentations from expert speakers and policy practitioners as well as interactive activities. Each session will draw on examples and experiences from existing ETS to explain the main design choices for setting up new ETS and to convey solutions for their implementation.

The UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration offers the opportunity to link thematic areas that were previously treated rather separately, as well as to clarify their interdependencies and to create synergies. This includes, for example, linking the topic of ecosystem restoration with different topics in the areas of biodiversity and climate. To illustrate these linkages, Ecologic Institute is preparing a total of 10 policy papers for the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). These papers are intended to support key German actors in implementing the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration as part of the overarching GIZ project "Supporting the Design and Implementation of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration" (DEER).

The RECIPES project aimed to develop new tools and guidelines to ensure the precautionary principle is applied while still encouraging innovation. The objective was to address and reduce societal controversy while helping policymakers and other stakeholders to assess risks and uncertainty and applying the precautionary principle taking into account innovation. This series of policy briefs condenses the joint research project findings and presents them consistently in the project design, developed by Ecologic Institute.

The RECIPES project aimed to develop new tools and guidelines to ensure the precautionary principle is applied while still encouraging innovation. The objective was to address and reduce societal controversy while helping policymakers and other stakeholders to assess risks and uncertainty and applying the precautionary principle taking into account innovation. This series of fact sheets condenses the joint research project case studies and presents them consistently in the project design, developed by Ecologic Institute.

The two-day workshop, funded under the BMUV's Environmental Research Plan, took place on 30 and 31 May 2022 at the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau (Germany) and was dedicated to the topic of "Technical-Hydraulic Assessment of Fish Protection and Downstream Migration at Hydropower Plants".

The EU has set out to become the world's first climate-neutral continent, but how are its regions progressing towards this goal? A new report commissioned by the European Parliament assesses this question. It discusses how progress towards net-zero can be measured on regional level and identifies common barriers facing regional governments. The study is based on six case studies from EU regions that have successfully begun the journey towards net neutrality. For the report, Ecologic Institute provided conceptual input on how to define climate neutrality and on how to gauge regions' progress towards it. In addition, the team carried out the case study on industry decarbonisation in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.