To deliver its climate targets for 2030 and 2050, the EU is starting to reform its climate policies. Extending emission trading to road transport and buildings is among the most consequential proposals for implementing the new targets. This proposal promises stronger economic incentives to reduce emissions, considerable certainties for target achievement and additional revenues to support Europe's decarbonization.

Governments around the world are seeking to improve the way they organize their climate policy-making. Many countries are adopting national framework laws to do so. Choosing the right design is key for making these laws effective. This paper provides an update on the core elements of ten European climate laws and identifies several best practice lessons that could inform future climate law design.

Legally binding reduction targets for Member States have been the backbone of EU climate policies since 2009. At a moment where the EU increases its climate ambition significantly, reduction targets for Member States must continue. They should be the unequivocal starting point of reforms to make EU climate rules fit for the EU's new climate targets – a new Ecologic Institute policy brief explains why.

On 26 March 2021 the Climate Recon 2050 Platform hosted an online debate with the European Commission and national government experts, discussing the impact of the climate neutrality target on EU climate policy and national planning processes.

In a new scientific article published in Agricultural Water Management, Dr. Josselin Rouillard, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, and co-author Dr. Jean-Daniel Rinaudo (Brgm) examine strategies to manage the overexploitation of water by agriculture. The research focused on innovative water allocation regimes involving strong collaborative approaches between regulators and water users.

Biodiversity continues to decline dramatically worldwide. However, current policy instruments, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, are generating new optimism and a great deal of political attention. Are these processes enough to tackle the biodiversity crisis? Or is radical change and rethinking necessary all the same? At the 6th Future Forum Ecornet, which was organized by Ecologic Institute in cooperation with ISOE on 15 June 2021, approaches for the protection of biodiversity were discussed.

This study aimed to address current knowledge gaps regarding the uptake and implementation of ecosystem-based approaches, and thereby gain a better understanding of their role and potential in climate change adaptation and mitigation in Europe.

KOPOS addresses the question of how greater regionalization of food supply can contribute to building environmentally friendly and more resilient supply structures. The KOPOS website was developed, implemented and designed by Ecologic Institute. It serves the public communication of the project's goals, events and results.

This policy brief provides an overview of the wide range of socio-economic benefits that nature-based solutions can generate. Co-authors IEEP and Ecologic Institute highlight the central role that such solutions can play in meeting the EU's 2030 commitments on climate action and biodiversity and identify recommendations to enhance their uptake. The paper is available for download.

How can think tanks help pave the path to a sustainable future in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and a rapidly changing policy landscape? Dr. Camilla Bausch and R. Andreas Kraemer address this question in the chapter "Think Tanks for Future" and make recommendations on how think tanks can adapt their work to reflect the pressing concerns of the future.

There is a growing impetus among policy makers and practitioners to support and empower capacities of communities under changing climatic conditions. Despite this there is little systematic understanding of why approaches work at local levels or not and what makes some communities resilient and others less so. Authors addressing this shortcoming by providing illustrative case studies and assessment tools from Europe’s North, East and South helping to bridge the gap between climate change policies, decision-making and the cultural traits of communities in Europe.

The H2020 EU-funded PONDERFUL project will investigate how ponds can be used as nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate change. It will evaluate the interaction and feedback between biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate in pondscapes.

Diffuse pollution is one of the key reasons European water bodies are failing to meet environmental objectives as specified in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Outbreaks of toxic green algae affect rivers, lakes and coastal waters creating so-called "dead zones" where no aquatic life can thrive. Such outbreaks are by-products of dangerously increasing nutrient levels in water. Nutrient and soil losses have been recognised as challenges for decades across Europe and have been a key driver for freshwater biodiversity losses. With climate change, these challenges are likely to get worse: higher temperatures, lower river flows and more frequent and more violent flooding events. Other human-induced changes (such as dams and weirs) have modified the course of rivers and affected their natural flows.

The 2021 edition of the "Meat Atlas" focuses on the issues of "youth, climate and nutrition". Stephanie Wunder , coordinator food systems at Ecologic Institute, contributed an essay on the importance of meat alternatives. With one million copies distributed annually, the "Meat Atlas" has a large outreach to the public. The Meat Atlas is available in print and available for download.

In this project, three sufficiency projects are to be implemented, which the contractors had developed together with UBA employees in the previous project.