Energy prosumption through the deployment of residential renewable energy technologies reduces GHG emissions, speeds up the energy transition and provides important community benefits. In this project "Energy Prosumption in Europe", Ecologic Institute, CE Delft and Fraunhofer ISI help the European Energy Agency to better explain how energy prosumerism works in the agency’s 32 member countries – with the aim of inspiring citizens and decision-makers at all governance levels to expand prosumerism.

The aim of this project is to develop and test a methodology to assess the management effectiveness of marine Natura 2000 sites and other EU MPAs, in the context of obligations under the Birds and Habitats Directives and commitments under the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. This methodology will build on experiences and methods used in the Natura 2000 network and other MPAs, as well as on any other available efforts in developing new systems that can be applied to the European context.

This project supports the EU Commission's DG CLIMA to develop and evaluate different options for certifying carbon removal solutions. Carbon removals, also known as negative emissions, include nature-based technologies such as afforestation and soil carbon, and technology-based approaches, including carbon capture and storage from direct air or bioenergy. To reach the EU's 2050 goal of climate neutrality, alongside mitigation of GHG emissions, the EU must remove substantial amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. This project assesses existing knowledge and identifies policy options to increase carbon removals across Europe.

The EU has agreed to become climate neutral by 2050. Achieving climate neutrality in the next 30 years is a great societal, economic and political undertaking, presenting many challenges and opportunities. The Climate Recon 2050 project addresses the central process of the development and implementation of national long-term climate strategies in EU Member States. The project combines analysis with dialogue to inform political debate.

Thuringia is one of the first German states to draft its own resource conservation strategy. This requires a solid data basis on the resource flows of the state. In the ThüRess project, Ecologic Institute and the Institute of Economic Structures Research (GWS) are developing this database as well as measures for such a resource conservation strategy.

Ecologic Institute, together with partners, will develop recommendations on how environmental offences can be better prevented in Germany through deterrent sanctions. The project first investigates at a theoretical level under which conditions a certain sanction, such as a prison sentence, has a deterrent effect against environmental law violations. These theoretical considerations are substantiated by means of case studies on illegal waste disposal and disposal of waste by ships on the sea. On this basis, the research team will develop recommendations for policies as well as practical measures to improve enforcement.

Ecologic Institute has been contracted to support the European Commission in preparing a draft version of the Guidance on the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy river restoration targets, thereby bringing together existing knowledge and technical input from different contributors into a coherent document.

Climate change is already causing an increase in extreme weather events, including an increase in the frequency and duration of periods of dry and drought conditions. In this paper, colleagues of the Emschergenossenschaft and Ecologic Institute summarize discussions on coordination and cooperation approaches for low water management and prevention at a workshop in the Emscher region.

This project assesses a selection of climate-change adaptation measures for the agriculture sector and gathers quantitative evidence on their potential to compensate for climate-change induced productivity losses. The results feed into the parent project "Climate change and bioeconomy – Sustainability gap analysis for the agricultural sector".

Training the next generation of environmental lawyers is crucial for ensuring that environmental law is complied with and can thus serve its function of protecting the environment. Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, co-moderated an online course for German and Russian students entitled "Ecolaw and ecoactivism in Germany and Russia".

This FIThydro Brief, written by Ecologic Institute's Hugh McDonald and Gerardo Anzaldúa, assesses the current and future demand for fish-friendly hydropower in Europe. It concludes that EU and national policy and economic developments offer a chance to innovate and address rising social and environmental concerns about hydropower's negative impacts.

This project as part of the National Food Waste Reduction Strategy aims to reduce food waste in private households. A core area of the project is the identification of promising approaches and interventions. These will be implemented in cooperation with practitioners and evaluated for their effectiveness using a standardized method developed within the project.

Modernising the EU's building stock is essential to meet the twin goals of climate action and green recovery. The building sector is responsible for 27 % of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for 36 % of energy-related GHG emissions when considering direct and indirect GHG emissions. According to the European Commission, building renovation rates must double to contribute to the envisioned 55 % emission reduction by 2030 – and this in turn is vital to go climate neutral by 2050.

This Briefing Paper examines coordination and implementation challenges between the water and agricultural sectors in relation to water quantity in the context of WFD implementation in the Spanish Guadalquivir river basin. The challenges are interlinked by the underlying difficulty of imposing unpopular decisions against the will of powerful actors in the agricultural sector. To address these challenges, the authors suggest various coordination instruments based on incentives, voluntary cooperation, persuasion and information exchange.The Briefing Paper presents one of six analyses of cross-sectoral coordination challenges that were conducted as part of the STEER research project and on which separate Briefing Papers are available.

What matters for the climate is the total amount of emissions and removals over time and corresponding levels of atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration. The current focus on reductions achieved as of a specific moment in time disguises this. Emission budgets that quantify the total amount of permissible emissions would address this problem. The EU should establish an emission budget within its Climate Law. This emission budget should include all GHG emissions, not only CO2. These are some of the key findings of this briefing paper.