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.

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.

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.

The aim of the project, in short: 'Resilience and Climate Adaptation for North and Baltic Sea', is to develop concrete, cross-sectoral proposals for measures to strengthen marine protection and climate change adaptation. These proposals are to build on the field of action "Seas and Coasts" in the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS) and the Adaptation Action Plan and support the German government's planned marine strategy. Furthermore, the project is fundamentally intended to promote cross-sectoral dialogue on marine protection and climate change adaptation at national, European and regional level.

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.

The overall objective of the AMAREX project is to develop methods to enable the adaptation of stormwater management concepts to extreme events including heavy rain, heat and drought at the municipal level. In doing so, the analysis will consider the different extreme weather events in an integrative way.

Over the past years, concerns and wide recognition about drought events and water scarcity have grown across the EU. The objectives of the assessment in this project are: to better understand national policies, strategies and plans on droughts in EU Member States, to gather detailed knowledge on existing drought management plans, including the use of exemptions under Art. 4(6) of the WFD, and to identify main challenges and lessons learnt in applying drought management, as well as the main issues to be addressed in order to improve the integration of drought management into river basin management planning. Ecologic Institute is part of the team that assesses national policies, strategies and plans on droughts in EU Member States based on document review and interviews with competent authorities and relevant stakeholders.

The formulation and implementation of climate adaptation plans in cities worldwide needs to speed up rapidly to keep in pace with projections of climate risks. The research project: "Resilience in Europe through Activating City Hubs reaching Out to Users with Triple-A climate adaptation Tools" (REACHOUT) aims to support the implementation of the European Green Deal by developing user-oriented climate services. It is funded through the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme. Research partners, climate service providers and city stakeholders are co-developing a coherent set of tools and services for seven City Hubs (Cork, Ireland; Athens, Greece; Lillestrøm, Norway; Milan, Italy; Logroño, Spain; Gdynia, Poland; and Amsterdam/APG, the Netherlands).

Ecologic Institute is collaborating with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and Ramboll Consulting on a project for the European Environment Agency (EEA) entitled "The Cost of Adaptation versus the Cost of Inaction for Europe." This follows up a 2020-project, "Overview of Accessibility of the Climate Change Adaptation Finance Data in Europe," also for the EEA.

The PRINCESS project is carried out by leading research institutions throughout Europe. It categorizes and evaluates the effects of alternative land use options after peatland rewetting on key EU environmental policies: (1) as a measure to halt biodiversity loss, (2) as a nature-based solution for mitigating and adapting to climate change, and (3) as a management tool to reduce nitrate release and, thus, eutrophication. PRINCESS investigates the interaction of the two main important global change drivers and attempts to take advantage of the coupling between the carbon and nitrogen cycles to maximize benefits from rewetting peatlands.

Ramboll and Ecologic Institute joined forces to develop and implement a 2-year outreach and engagement campaign, intended to draw new visitors and users to the Climate-ADAPT platform in five selected Eastern and Central European countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). The objective of the outreach and user engagement activities was to make new users aware of the huge potential of the Climate-ADAPT and encourage them to share relevant data and information, turning more users from passive consumers of information into proactive providers of information and contributors to the platform.

In this project, three sufficiency projects are to be implemented, which the contractors had developed together with UBA employees in the previous project.