The RECIPES project aimed to develop new tools and guidelines to ensure the precautionary principle is applied while still encouraging innovation. The objective was to address and reduce societal controversy while helping policymakers and other stakeholders to assess risks and uncertainty and applying the precautionary principle taking into account innovation. This series of policy briefs condenses the joint research project findings and presents them consistently in the project design, developed by Ecologic Institute.

The multifunctional character of nature-based solutions enables them to provide responses to both social and environmental challenges. This policy brief provides gaps and opportunities to sustainable urban development through NBS at local and national as well as EU and international level. It also analyses local needs from the European and international levels.

This policy brief synthesises the latest results from the COACCH project on the economic costs of climate change in Europe and identifies areas of possible discussion to explore with stakeholders at the second COACCH workshop. The policy brief is available for download.

The discussion paper presents the rationale for a new treaty on tackling plastic waste and highlights its possible added value. The objective would be to reduce marine plastic litter through a comprehensive approach that also includes land-based sources, a life cycle approach to plastic and is open to future developments. The purpose would not be to prohibit plastics as such.

Climate planning for 2050 has become a core strand of debate in the European Union. Focus has shifted to a potential revision of the EU's long-term climate objectives within the context of a new 2050 strategy, which is to be submitted to the United Nations under the Paris Agreement by 2020. In parallel, all EU Member States must develop national strategies of their own, albeit with little central guidance and no overarching structure in place for collaboration.

A report by Ecologic Institute and Climact shows that the draft National Energy and Climate Plans presented by governments at the start of 2019 are in acute need of improvement. They suffer from inadequate targets and insufficient details on the policies and financing needed to move towards net-zero emission economies in Europe. Member States also need to do better in involving their national stakeholders in providing input to the plans, to benefit from their expertise and to get them on board for future policies. The report is available for download.

Public campaigns and other policy instruments can significantly influence consumer behaviour and contribute to a reduction of consumer food waste. However, there are only very few studies that have evaluated to what extent policy interventions actually reduced or prevented food waste. In this REFRESH policy brief Ecologic Institute's Stephanie Wunder summarises REFRESH findings on consumer behaviour as well as related research results and derives policy recommendations to reduce consumer food waste.

The MinFuture project has developed a framework aimed at providing guidance on how to perform a more systematic physical accounting, as well as steps to help implement such a system. The MinFuture Business Brief is available for download.

Many of today’s large societal challenges, such as climate change mitigation, resource security, urbanisation and migration require a fundamental transformation of the way we use natural resources. However, our understanding of the stocks and flows of materials and energy (the physical economy) is highly fragmented and involves significant knowledge gaps. The MinFuture project developed a framework aimed at providing guidance on how to perform more systematic monitoring of the physical economy, as well as steps helping to implement such a system. The MinFuture Policy Brief is available for download.

The persistent damaging impacts of subsoil compaction call for policy intervention in order to secure yields and adapt to climate change, as well as to sustain soil ecosystem services for future generations. The authors of this RECARE Policy Brief, including Ana Frelih-Larsen of Ecologic Institute, demand that policy responses need to address the underlying drivers of farmers' decision-making concerning field traffic through a systematic and coordinated approach for sustainable soil management in Europe. The RECARE policy brief is available for download.

The problem of historical contamination remains an important gap in European policymaking on soils. Political commitment is required to address the issue of historical contamination systematically by providing a common EU framework to guide and facilitate activities at the national level, where in turn establishing and implementing national strategies for managing soil contamination is important. Finally, improving knowledge, sharing, and availability of existing information, and engaging stakeholders in the process of remediating soil contamination is recommended by the authors, lead by Ana Frelih-Larsen and Sophie Ittner of Ecologic Institute. The RECARE policy brief is available for download.

Despite the extensive loss of productive soils and the valuable ecosystem services that soils provide, the awareness of the magnitude and negative implications of these processes remain relatively low. In this RECARE policy brief, Ecologic Institute's Sandra Naumann and Ana Frelih-Larsen together with Gundula Prokop from the Austrian Environment Agency illustrate the scale of the problem and identify ready-made solutions and steps policy makers and practitioners can take across different levels, from city planning to national and European level. The RECARE policy brief is available for download.

Shipping is vital for trade in the global economy and in particular for countries whose economies are closely tied to trading, like those surrounding the Baltic Sea. However, compared to other sectors, shipping is also a significant driver of environmental pressures, such as the spread of alien species or other physical influences. Underwater noise and emissions of nitrogen oxide and fine dust are additional significant pressures from shipping compared to other land and sea-based activities. Shipping is also a source of greenhouse gases (GHG). Ecologic Institute's policy brief presents an assessment of 20 policies with the potential to tackle the pressures from shipping. The policy brief is available for download.

Krüger, Ina et al., (2016): Marine Strategy Framework Directive, AQUACROSS Policy Review, European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation grant agreement No. 642317.

COACCH (2018). The Economic Cost of Climate Change in Europe: Synthesis Report on State of Knowledge and Key Research Gaps. Policy brief by the COACCH project. Editors: Paul Watkiss, Jenny Troeltzsch, Katriona McGlade. Published May , 2018.