To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, EU policy will have to be reoriented – from incremental towards structural change. As expressed in the European Green Deal, the challenge is to initiate the necessary transformation to climate neutrality in the coming years, while enhancing competitiveness, productivity, employment. To mobilise the creative, financial and political resources, the EU also needs a governance framework that facilitates cross-sectoral policy integration and that allows citizens, public and private stakeholders to participate in the process and to own the results.

Photovoltaic technology is a key lever for decarbonising Berlin's power consumption and for social participation in the transformation process, especially for tenants. Therefore, solar energy and projects on rental apartment blocks are key elements of the Berlin Senate's Energy and Climate Protection Programme. In the research project "ElectricityNeighbours", Ecologic Institute and IÖW evaluate the experience gained so far in implementing such prosumer projects in Berlin, outline innovation potentials for the field and develop ideas on how the regulatory framework can be further developed. In doing so, the team looks beyond pure tenant electricity projects to the potentials of sector coupling.

The aim of this project is to assess – for a selection of EU Member States – the impacts of policies and measures (PaMs) as described in their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). To this end, the project team identifies specific policy instruments and related ex-ante and ex-post evaluations, to collect and compare impact estimates and analyze the implications for achieving the energy and climate goals. The assessment also provides insights into the methodological uncertainties of evaluations in different policy areas. The considered policy areas are energy efficiency, renewable energy, cross-cutting instruments and agriculture and the NECPs from the following Member States are included; Germany, Denmark, France, Slovenia and Sweden.

In this project, Clean Energy Wire (CLEW) and Ecologic Institute organised a series of 10 online briefing events (webinars) to inform journalists about the key elements and topics of European energy and climate policy. In total, more than 130 journalists from 30 countries participated in the ten events, dissecting topics like the 2030 EU climate target, the UN climate change conference COP26 and the EU's carbon border levy plans. The attendees ranged from journalists representing smaller local publications to those from established media such as Bloomberg, NY Times, the Guardian, Euractiv and Die Welt.

Energy prosumption through the deployment of residential renewable energy technologies reduces GHG emissions, speeds up the energy transition and provides important community benefits. In this project "Energy Prosumption in Europe", Ecologic Institute, CE Delft and Fraunhofer ISI help the European Energy Agency to better explain how energy prosumerism works in the agency’s 32 member countries – with the aim of inspiring citizens and decision-makers at all governance levels to expand prosumerism.

In this project, Climact and Ecologic Institute analysed the impact assessment for the new EU climate target proposed by the Commission in September 2020. After examining policy options and modelling results, they were compared with recent studies, in particular with Climact's modelling results for 2030. A policy brief highlights key points where the Commission differs from other studies and identifies climate change potentials that deserve more attention in future analyses.

Around the world, an increasing number of countries have decided to phase out coal, both to achieve their climate targets, but also to modernise their electricity sector in the transition from fossil to renewable energy supply. This includes Germany, which long had one of the highest shares of coal use in Europe – and Chile, as one the first Latin American country to move beyond coal. To support the dialogue in the Chilean-German Energy Partnership, Ecologic Institute, Agora Energiewende and Chilean experts were commissioned to draft a paper comparing the coal phase-out processes in both countries.

The Ariadne project shows ways in which the climate goals can be achieved. The focus is on research for energy transition strategies, their systemic effects, and which sectoral interactions arise as a result. The project investigates policy instruments to help achieve climate goals in an efficient and socially balanced way. With the help of evidence-based assessments, the scientific basis for shaping the energy transition is to be expanded and any learning processes in politics and science are to be triggered.

Ecologic Institute investigates the extent to which transport and buildings are already affected by the existing EU emissions trading scheme, e.g. through district heating networks and electromobility. Furthermore, Ecologic Institute contributes case studies on non-European emissions trading schemes covering transport and/or buildings (including California, New Zealand and Tokyo). Furthermore, Ecologic Institute provides analyses on which price-based instruments are already applied in selected EU member states. Finally, Ecologic Institute examines how the expansion of emissions trading would affect competitiveness and the EU's existing climate policy instruments.

Addressing energy consumption and related GHG emissions from buildings constitute a major challenge in the light of the climate crisis. At the same time, the interplay of building policies with other policy areas comes into focus with sector coupling, digitalization but also lifecycle considerations and adaptation to climate change. For the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy, the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), Climact, Creara Consultores and Ecologic Institute investigate which lessons can be learned from already existent integrated policy approaches for new buildings and buildings undergoing a major renovation.

The European commission strives for carbon-neutrality in Europe by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, the energy intensive industries will have to reduce their emissions substantially. On behalf of the European Parliament, CE Delft and Ecologic Institute will summarise how energy intensive industries in Europe can transition to a carbon-neutral energy economy while preserving their global competitiveness.

Ecologic Institute starts dialogue with conservative climate and energy policy makers. The dialogue aims to build bridges for effective climate action through all segments of society. The project is carried by Ecologic Institute in cooperation with Szazadveg Foundation, a Hungarian Think Tank. The dialogue consists of a number of meetings, publications and a concluding conference in Brussels.

Without a thorough transformation in the transport sector, the energy transition will not succeed. On the one hand, emissions caused by mobility must be significantly reduced. On the other hand, the two sectors of transport and energy need to be linked. Lower Saxony, where the dominance of car traffic is more pronounced than in other German regions, has initiated many sustainable mobility projects in recent years. Now it is a matter of spreading the word on new mobility concepts. To contribute to this broader goal, the WenaMoNi project carries out a comprehensive cross-sectoral analysis in the field of sustainable mobility in Lower Saxony and then identifies opportunities and obstacles.

Infrastructure systems are undergoing a process of profound transformation. They are under great pressure to change in order to contribute to changing social objectives. Expectations and challenges with regard to climate adaptation and climate protection, the circular economy, energy system transformation including the phasing out of nuclear power, coal, mobility, decarbonisation, as well as the long-term processes of urbanisation and demographic change are setting new goals, which also affect the development of infrastructures. The new technical possibilities of information and communication technologies in the wake of the digital transformation, including the increasing familiarity of the users in their application, together with the new objectives lead to a great dynamic of change towards more efficiency, comfort and partly completely new services.

Biofuels form a large part of renewable energy consumption in the transport sector in the EU. The use of biofuels has many challenges for consumers and it is therefore necessary to better understand the different problems and trends of consumption in the EU. "Study on the use of feedstocks for biofuels in selected EU countries" evaluates the availability of data on different sustainability aspects of biofuels in selected EU member states. In addition, it provides information on relevant policy measures to support biofuel consumption.