On 17 April 2024, the fifth h_da Dialogue Forum took place at the Schader Forum in Darmstadt as part of the Darmstadt Days of Transformation. It included a panel on "Post-growth economy for small and medium-sized enterprises", which sparked a lively discussion if and how a post growth economy can work for SMEs or if, taking the post-growth perspective, it might even be the only possible solution to tackle the triple planetary crisis. Susanne Langsdorf, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute in Berlin, explained the potential role of circular economy solutions to tackle the challenges and elaborated on the current political activities on national and European level to transform to a green(er) economy.

At the Think2030 conference in Brussels, Aaron Scheid discussed the role of the agricultural sector in reaching climate neutrality by 2050 during a Science4Policy session. Despite some progress so far, efforts have stagnated, and current projections indicate only a modest reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2030, ultimately making the sector number one in terms of GHGs emissions. Therefore, shifting support away from emission-intensive practices and transitioning into a low-emission agricultural sector must be our first priority, while making farmers the driver of the transition.

As part of the Polish Climate Congress from 19 to 20 March 2024 in Warsaw, Ewa Iwaszuk, a Fellow at Ecologic Institute, took part in a panel discussion on implementing nature-based solutions in urban areas. She was joined on the panel by Joanna Kiernicka-Allavena (Climate-KIC), Anna Banaszczyk (World Bank), Marcin Sadura (Warsaw Municipal Sewage Company) and Robert Skowroński (Szczecin Marshal’s Office). The discussion was moderated by Mateusz Kowali (Polish Green Network).

Ecologic Institute was part of the first European Carbon Farming Summit, which took place from 6 to 7 March 2024 in Valencia. This event gathered hundreds of people from academia, the private and public sector, farmers and farmers associations who engaged in the discussion around the upcoming EU Carbon Farming Certification Framework (CRCF). Aaron Scheid and Julia Pazmiño Murillo shared the outcomes of their work as part of the CREDIBLE Project and hosted a breakout session to discuss the minimum requirements to ensure carbon farming delivers sustainability benefits within the CRCF framework and beyond.

On 14 June 2023, Aaron Scheid presented policy models for linking a reward system for carbon removals in the land sector with the AgETS. Five models were presented as part of the study "Pricing Agricultural Emissions and Rewarding Climate Action in the Agri-food Value Chain", which was developed for DG CLIMA at the time and formed the basis for the panel discussion.

At the NetworkNature Annual Event held on 8 June 2023 at the Flagey Building in Brussels (Belgium) participants gathered to explore the transformative potential of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) across sectors and communities. One noteworthy panel discussion included Natalia Burgos, representing the INTERLACE project, alongside representatives from the European Commission, the European Environmental Bureau, and the German Environment Agency.

On 7 June 2023, Malek Al Jebaie presented the findings of a joint research investigation conducted by Ecologic Institute, supervised by McKenna Davis, and the International Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University at the Ecocity World Summit in London at the Barbican Centre. The presentation primarily focused on the key trends and patterns observed in 151 European cases from the Urban Governance Atlas, whose development was coordinated by Ecologic Institute within the INTERLACE project.

As part of the Future Leaders' Global Policy Forum from 22 to 23 May 2023 in Milan, Benedict Bueb, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, took part in a panel discussion on tackling the climate crisis and its impacts. He was joined on the panel by Abla Abdel Latif, Director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) and Nicola Monti, CEO of Edison. Keynote speeches by Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vera Songwe, Co-Chair of the High Level Panel on Climate Finance of the World Economic Forum (WEF) completed the panel.

At this round table, organized by the TAPP (True Animal Protein Price) Coalition, the panel discussed a study that shows that true costs for animal products that takes into account all societal costs has a positive impact on society. The study was co-authored by Aaron Scheid and Benjamin Görlach from Ecologic Institute.

On 21 March 2023, Aaron Scheid presented Ecologic Institute's analysis of the German CAP Strategic Plan at the NABUtalk on the next CAP reform. He joined State Secretary Silvia Bender and CAP experts Dr. Sebastian Lakner, Sönke Beckmann, and Dr. Norbert Röder to discuss the upcoming CAP reform. They further addressed the issue of phasing out flat-rate payments and creating income for farms by rewarding climate, biodiversity and environmental services. A look at the EU's neighboring countries and the United Kingdom and look at new (and innovative?) models completed the discussion. Aaron's presentation slides are available for download.

Carbon farming promises to mitigate climate change whilst generating income for farmers – but can this promise be realised, and what are the risks? The European Parliament’s Environment and Agricultural Committees held a joint hearing to understand how EU policy can support on-farm carbon sequestration. The hearing featured two panels, including a presentation from Ecologic Institute Fellow Hugh McDonald on the challenges of carbon farming certification.

Alongside Anne Siemons (Oeko-Institut), Hugh McDonald critically presented a soil-focussed assessment of the EU Commission's recently proposed Framework for Carbon Removals Certification.

On 7 February 2023, Aaron Scheid, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, took stock of pesticides in agriculture and discussed possible alternatives.

Building on the momentum created by the negotiations on the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRL) as well as by the overall successful outcome of the biodiversity summit COP15, the think tank network "Think Sustainable Europe" (TSE) met with EU Environment Commissioner Sinkevičius. As part of TSE, Ecologic Institute presented key recommendations on the NRL. These build on a series of policy briefs by Ecologic Institute and IEEP respectively, and were well received and aroused great interest both in the EU Commission and the European Parliament.

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.