<p>How can culture contribute to change? How can and should it contribute to achieving environmental sustainability? Dr. Camilla Bausch was invited to reflect on such questions in the context of the 8th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.</p>&#13;

<p>What is the importance of the Baltic Sea marine environment to society? How do human activities contribute to national and regional economies? How does the state of the marine environment contribute to the well-being of current and future generations? The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) brought together around 800 players active in the Baltic Sea region to reflect on common challenges, the EU Strategy and its objectives. Ecologic Institute's Benjamin Boteler was invited to participate as a panelist at the HELCOM session "Latest status of the sea revealed" held on 13 June 2017.</p>&#13;

<p>On 23 May 2017 a CommBeBiz webinar featured a discussion with Ecologic Institute&#39;s Holger Gerdes and Zoritza Kiresiewa, on the topic &quot;Creating Networks for the Transition to a Bio-based and Circular Economy.&quot; They gave deeper insights into recommendations for effective engagement in the bio-based and circular economy. These recommendations were published in a BioSTEP policy paper, which is available online.</p>

Ecologic Institute's Elizabeth Zelljadt provided an overview of the ways various emission trading systems (ETS) use revenues from the auctioning of allowances as part of a panel discussion on revenue recycling at the Ontario Cap-and-Trade Forum in Toronto. The event brought together government decision-makers as well as analysts and Canadian industries affected by the province's emissions trading system, which entered into force January 2017 and held its first allowance auction in March 2017.

<p>Ecologic Institute's Lena Donat provided the European perspective on the Paris Agreement and the outcomes of COP22 in Marrakesh at the 45th Cairo Climate Talks, titled "COP22: Fostering Climate Change Resilience in Egypt". The event brought together decision-makers as well as representatives from business, academia and civil society.</p>&#13;

<p>Laudato Si': To Care for our Common Home. Pope Francis' encyclical has created widespread conversation within and beyond the Catholic community. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute along with Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Klaus Töpfer, Hartmut Graßl, Anton Losinger, Mary Evelyn Tucker and other prominent voices from science, policy and theology provided insights on this discussion at the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) three day international workshop on the Papal Encyclical.</p>&#13;

The 40th Cairo Climate Talks, titled "Putting Paris into Effect: Climate Change Action in Africa" brought together decision-makers as well as representatives from business, academia and civil society. Ecologic Institute's Lena Donat provided the European perspective on the outcome of the Paris climate summit and the future negotiation process.

The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) presented on 25 February 2016 a statement entitled "Environment and Free Trade: Environmentally sound design of TTIP". Following the presentation of the statement by Prof. Dr. Christian Callies, a member of the SRU, a panel discussion was held. Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow, Ecologic Institute, was one of the participants, next to Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan and Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner.

On invitation of the Rock Environment and Energy Institute Susanne Langsdorf, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, took part in an "Energy Transformation Roundtable Discussion" in Beijing on November 3rd 2015. At the roundtable a group of international experts presented and discussed different "roadmaps" to an energy transition. Susanne Langsdorf presented the energy transition ("Energiewende") in Germany.

In two presentations Ina Krüger (Ecologic Institute) introduced the work of Ecologic Institute at the 13th International Conference "EUROPE-INBO 2015" for the implementation of the European Water Directives. In a short presentation at the round table 'The financing of water policy and economic analysis' Ina Krueger presented the results of an evaluation of the water abstraction charge and the compensation payments to farmers in the state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). The presentation slides are available for download.

The Arctic Summer College (ASC) is proud to have recently completed its fifth successful year. This year, the Arctic Summer College had the exciting opportunity of hosting a breakout session at the Arctic Circle Assembly on 16 October 2015 in Reykjavík. Ecologic Institute's Arne Riedel, Max Grünig and Katherine Weingartner took part in the conference as part of the German delegation.

"Opportunities for and barriers to German-French contributions to the Climate Conference in Paris" was the topic of a panel discussion on 16 October 2015. The German-French association Gerhard Kiersch Verein / AGKV organized the event. The discussion addressed the question of how Germany and France could contribute to the success of the global climate conference and which obstacles still need to be overcome.

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer (MCC) and Hildegard Müller (BDEW) extended an invitation for 15 October 2015 to discuss the topic "The Climate Conference in Paris – and then?" Franziska Erdle (WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle), Dr. Camilla Bausch (Ecologic Institute) and Christoph Bals (Germanwatch) provided commentary to the introductory talks of Edenhofer and Müller.

Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, joined Bettina Kampman from CE Delft on 2 July 2015 to present and discuss a mid-term evaluation of the Renewable Energy Directive at Directorate-General for Energy (DG Energy) in Brussels (Belgium). The study had been carried out by a consortium of CE Delft, Ricardo-AEA, Ecologic Institute, E-Bridge and REKK, and been published recently on DG Energy's website. The presentation is available for download.

The Energy Union is a central project of the European Union. The aim is to build an integrated energy market that provides secure, affordable and sustainable energy to all European citizens. On 10 June 2015, Katharina Umpfenbach discussed options for implementing the Energy Union with stakeholders from central and eastern Europe at a conference jointly organised by the Prague Institute for Global Policy (glopolis), the Delegation of the European Commission to the Czech Republic and the Heinrich Böll Foundation Prague. In her contribution, Katharina Umpfenbach emphasised the opportunities of putting decarbonisation at the heart of the Energy Union. Renewable energies and energy efficiency have enormous potential to replace costly energy imports and drive innovation in the EU.