Healthy wetlands are acknowledged for being among the most effective sinks for carbon and for providing other valuable ecosystem services. In contrast, human-impacted wetlands represent a major source of greenhouse gases (GHG). Important research questions on the GHG abatement potential of wetland restoration and on management and restoration actions to maintain and promote the mitigation and adaptation capacity of European wetlands are still to be answered due to major data and knowledge gaps. The RESTORE4Cs project (a 3-year Research and Innovation Action funded by the EU) aims to fill this gap by assessing the role of restoration action in wetlands climate change mitigation capacity and for the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services using an integrative socio-ecological systems approach.

In addition to the protection of still intact peatlands, the restoration and sustainable management of previously drained peatland soils are important contributions for protecting biodiversity and the mitigation of climate change. In order to address these needs in a more targeted manner, the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) published the first National Peatland Protection Strategy in September 2021. Together with DUENE e.V., Ecologic Institute supports the implementation of the National Peatland Protection Strategy.

Ready4NetZero aims to support small- and medium-sized cities in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Croatia in the development and implementation of local strategies to reach climate neutrality. To do so, the project creates knowledge resources (written guidance) and provides training and capacity building activities (webinars, workshops, a study visit, an international conference) to equip municipal staff with capacities, knowledge, and networks to develop and implement local long-term climate strategies.

Climate Farm Demo is a unique pan-European network of Pilot Demo Farmers covering 28 countries and all pedo-climatic areas. Its overall aim it to accelerate the adoption of Climate Smart Farming (CSF) practices and solutions by farmers and all actors of the Climate Smart Agriculture Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS) with a view of adapting agricultural production systems to climate change and of achieving a carbon-neutral agricultural sector by 2050, thereby meeting the targets of the EU Climate strategy. To reach this objective, the project adopts a Multi-Actor approach by connecting 1500 Pilot Demo Farmers and their Climate Farm Advisors (CFAs) at European and national levels to increase knowledge exchange and cross-fertilisation in their respective AKIS.

The project aims to facilitate a focused, well-founded and trustful exchange between leading German environmental organisations and think tanks on the climate agenda of the G7 and the G20. The aim is to invite persons to the expert dialogue who have distinguished themselves through years of political commitment in multilateralism and who are multipliers in their field. The expert dialogue will identify the most pressing climate policy issues for the G7 and the G20 and discuss recommendations for action.

In this project, Ecologic Institute and IEEP outline gaps and provide recommendations for better integrating health concerns into EU policies. The project team assessed 20 EU policy documents on adaptation, biodiversity, water, waste, mobility, and cross-cutting issues and their integration of health in the broader context of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy.

This project will 1) identify good examples, new and innovative interventions to contribute to biodiversity and climate objectives of the CAP; 2) assess CAP Strategic Plan interventions that correspond to the biodiversity and climate ambitions in the four CAP Strategic Plans of Germany, France, Spain and Poland; 3) analyze whether these interventions correspond to the scientific evidence and whether they are relevant and sufficient; 4) consider co-benefits and trade-offs between different policy objectives.

Roofs still offer enormous potential for solar electricity generation. In order to achieve the ambitious expansion targets of the German government, this potential must be raised. In a new project, Ecologic Institute and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) analyze different system concepts and evaluate their economic viability. Existing barriers to the expansion of photovoltaic systems on buildings are identified and the extent to which the Renewable Energy Sources Act 2023 will remove these barriers is examined. As a result of the project, recommendations for further improvements of the regulatory framework will be elaborated.

As part of the implementation of its NDC, the Chinese government is focusing on further developing its climate legislation, which includes the design of a Chinese climate legislation framework. Through the climate legislation workstream of the project "Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)", the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports the Chinese side by strengthening exchange between experts and stakeholders from the two countries and providing information on German and EU experience in this field.

With the European Green Deal, the EU wants to become climate neutral by 2050. To achieve this, we must decarbonize our energy systems and economies. An important building block is the EU Taxonomy Regulation, which aims to channel money flows into green projects, technologies, and processes. The policy does so by classifying what is environmentally sustainable and what is not, thereby providing transparency for investors. In this project, Ecologic Institute critically accompanies this design process, prepares keynotes and fosters exchange between stakeholders from politics, industry, academia, and civil society.

In this project, the Ecologic Institute analyzes the political and legal frameworks of all 27 EU Member States relevant for the removal of CO2.

The Covid-19 pandemic and, most recently, the war that has erupted in Ukraine have shown that such crises can have a major impact on European emissions trading. This raises the central question: Can and must the European emissions trading system become more crisis-proof? In the present project, concrete crisis scenarios are developed that could put a strain on the European emissions trading system (EU ETS). This is followed by an analysis of the possibilities that the existing laws and regulations offer for reacting to such crises. The further aim of the project is to show ways to improve the handling of crises within the trading system.

In KliMaWerk, integrated measures and strategies are developed to increase hydrological and ecological resilience for watercourses affected by climate change. Special consideration is given to low-flow and drying situations, alternating with heavy rainfall events. The ecological functions of the water bodies as well as competing water body uses are taken into account through the integrated consideration of an entire water body catchment area. What is new here is the holistic view of the landscape water balance, instead of a narrow focus on individual spatial elements or individual user groups.