This policy brief highlights the importance of well-functioning ecosystems for ensuring human health and well-being, not least in light of climate change. Furthermore, it outlines the potential of nature restoration and specifically the law to generate healthier living environments and to mitigate diverse physical, mental and social health threats.

This policy brief targeted two main issues: 1) how the new nature restoration law would be beneficial to other existing EU policy objectives, and 2) which specific benefits would derive from the submission of the required National Restoration Plans (NRPs). As such, the law will – through the implementation of restoration measures – accelerate the pace of implementation of other EU laws and policies for air, climate, water, and marine.

This policy brief highlights the importance of a high degree of river connectivity for healthy and biodiverse water bodies that can provide key ecosystem services such as water supply for different human uses and resilience to climate change impacts. The policy brief presents evidence and data on the decline of river connectivity due to human interventions, in particular river barriers and floodplain degradation, and the benefits offered by measures to restore free-flowing rivers.

Healthy urban ecosystems and biodiversity are key to ensuring the resilience of European cities. This policy brief presents evidence and data to support strong targets for urban ecosystem restoration to be included in the Nature Restoration Law.

This briefing by Michael Jakob and colleagues' reviews some of the major developments in global climate politics in the past year and looks ahead to 2023.

This paper provides an overview of the process of developing an LTS and its challenges, examines the support available for countries undergoing this process, and presents some ideas on how the G20 could raise the political profile of the strategies. It has been included as input into the T20 process preceding the 2020 summit.

This policy brief prepared by Dr. Ulf Stein and Benedict Bueb from Ecologic Institute together with other European experts was published by the European Commission. It provides an overview of current gaps in the EU legislative framework that hinder the realization of the benefits of digitalisation in the water sector and offers concrete recommendations on how to overcome them.

This policy brief summarizes the results of 17 case studies of non-EU countries. It presents the main lessons and takeaways for the EU along the four challenges that define the 4i-TRACTION project: facilitating integration across sectors, shifting investments, rolling out infrastructure and fostering innovation for a climate-neutral economy.

This Think 2030 policy brief proceeds in five parts. Section 1 defines what a sustainable agri-food system should look like according to the scientific literature and how an Sustainable Food System (SFS) law could bring EU food systems more in line with the evidence. Section 2 then explores the potential objectives of a law and how to define a sustainable EU agri-food system. Section 3 discusses the architecture of the law, and section 4 explores the need for a multi-level governance framework involving Member States. Finally, the conclusion considers possible political pathways to the achievement of an ambitious SFS law. The policy brief is available for download.

This Think2030 policy brief highlights the importance of adopting an ambitious EU nature restoration law – given the manifold benefits of restoration to nature, people, and the economy – and discusses what is needed to ensure that the restoration targets are achieved by Member States. It formulates a series of recommendations for Member States and the EU institutions to facilitate the successful implementation of the upcoming law.

This policy brief investigates the gaps in the existing international treaties on marine plastic pollution and proposes components that need to be considered in a new treaty. These proposals will complement the G20 work on plastic pollution. Furthermore, since the G20 summit will be held in Indonesia in 2022, the focus of this policy brief will not only be relevant to G20 countries but also to Southeast Asia as the biggest contributor of marine plastics.

This policy brief surveys the current state and recent development of the Arctic blue economy in the five Arctic coastal states (Canada, Denmark, USA, Russia and Norway), as well as the Arctic High Seas, to understand potential impacts on Arctic marine biodiversity. It also analyses the driving factors behind these developments.

BE Rural developed and piloted a new framework to help decision makers consider ecological limits when drafting regional bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps, and with this to contribute to Priority 3 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy: "Understand the ecological boundaries of the bioeconomy".

This briefing paper, co-authored by Ecologic Institute's Natalia Burgos Cuevas, provides an overview of how the climate change–human mobility nexus has been addressed in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted thus far by South American countries and identifies pathways towards improved management of population movements in revised NDCs. To date, a partial integration of the human mobility perspective prevails: References to the topic indicate a slow – but progressive – acknowledgment of the impacts of a changing climate in vulnerable communities, which may include human displacement. Given the urgent need to move forward from the recognition of the topic to the establishment of effective measures to tackle forced population movements associated with the impacts of climate change, the updating of NDCs – currently under way in the region – entails an opportunity to incorporate strategies aimed at enhancing the management of human mobility.

How can small-scale bio-based businesses secure the support they need to thrive? This BE-Rural policy brief highlights the main barriers to financing and outlines key recommendations for policymakers.