Publication:Knowledge for Future – The Environment Podcast
How can sustainable food be made accessible to all? Charlotte Thielmann from detektor.fm discusses this question with experts and examines the necessary interplay of political and legal frameworks.
Publication:Knowledge for Future – The Environment Podcast
How does food from a farm ends up on our tables and how can these value chains become more regional? Charlotte Thielmann from detektor.fm explores these questions together with her interview partners.
This publication provides a quantitative overview of the development and status of environmental crime in Germany between 2010 and 2019, based on data from the police crime statistics ("Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik") and the Federal Statistical Office's criminal prosecution statistics ("Strafverfolgungsstatistik"). The report provides both, an overview of general trends and an in-depth account of individual environmental offences. In addition, the publication contains data on administrative offences relating to trafficking of protected species. The report was prepared by a team from Ecologic Institute on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency.
Publication:Knowledge for Future – The Environment Podcast
Who allocates arable land in Germany, how can farmers lease or buy it, and what are the reasons behind its significant price increase? Charlotte Thielmann from detektor.fm explores these questions together with experts from the field.
Rural regions in Southeastern and Eastern Europe are facing multiple challenges such as a rural exodus, aging populations, a declining industrial base and low innovation performance. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. In response to this, stakeholders in the five BE-Rural regions developed bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps for enhanced rural development. This publication presents short summaries of the regional strategies and roadmaps focusing on the regional context in terms of available natural resources, the social, economic and political context, the strategy development process and the priorities outlined in the strategies.
As the source of 10% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions and a major carbon sink, agriculture offers significant potential to mitigate climate change. This on-farm agricultural climate mitigation is referred to as carbon farming. On behalf of the European Parliament, Ecologic Institute with support from IEEP investigate the potential of carbon farming to mitigate emissions in the EU and how to effectively incentivise farmers to act. Ahead of two key EU Commission policy proposals in December 2021 (the 'Carbon Farming Initiative' and 'Carbon Removals Certification Mechanism'), this study summarises existing knowledge on carbon farming options, business models, challenges, and evaluates funding and policy opportunities to support its uptake. The report is available to download.
Publication:Knowledge for Future – The Environment Podcast
The globalisation of agriculture means that cities are no longer primarily supplied by their surrounding areas. Yet, regional structures can help to make food more sustainable and environmentally friendly. In this podcast, detektor.fm presenter Charlotte Thielmann asks Stephanie Wunder from Ecologic Institute whether regional food is the answer to the problems of the food industry.
According to a recent EEA report co-authored by Ecologic Institute, water stress has become a serious problem across Europe and climate change is likely to raise the challenge. The report "Water resources across Europe – confronting water stress: an updated assessment" calls for a shift from crisis management to risk management to prevent irreversible negative consequences for nature and society. The report emphasizes the need for greater water use efficiency and improved ecosystem resilience, as water resources become insufficient to meet the joint demand of humans and nature.
How can result-based payments be designed to support scaling up of agricultural practices that reduce emissions and deliver robust carbon removals? A technical guidance for setting up such payments has been published by DG Climate Action. Ecologic Institute co-wrote the guidance with its partners IEEP and COWI.
Meredith S., Allen B., Kollenda E., Maréchal A., Hart K., Hulot J.F., Frelih Larsen A. and Wunder S. (2021) European food and agriculture in a new paradigm: Can global challenges like climate change be addressed through a farm to fork approach? Think 2030 policy paper by the Institute for European Environmental Policy and the Ecologic Institute.
In this publication, we present the results of an acceptance study in two case study regions in Germany. We investigated farmers' and other soil experts' perceptions of subsoil amelioration as an approach to adapt to climate change. In addition, we analyzed the factors that influence their willingness to adopt specific measures to improve the subsoil. Applying q-method and focus groups, we surveyed overall 86 actors in the agricultural sector. The article is published in Frontiers in Agronomy, Volume 3, April 2021 and is available for download.
Published in April 2021, this policy brief identifies four options for increased multilateral cooperation that support an international shift towards sustainable food systems and help to increase the global 2030 climate ambition at the same time. The identified initiatives focus on activities that reduce food loss and waste and support plant based diets, following a 'food systems approach.'
As part of its work within the ETC-ICM, Ecologic Institute has contributed as lead author to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report examining the multiple pressures that agriculture put on Europe's water. The report shows that that a wider uptake of sustainable agricultural practices such as organic farming, agroecological approaches and nature-based solutions is necessary to protect the water environment. To achieve this, ambitious measures to promote sustainable agriculture must be adopted in the upcoming EU common agricultural policy 2021-2027.
CIRCASA 2020. Deliverable D3.1: "Strategic Research Agenda on soil organic carbon in agricultural soils." European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No 774378 – Coordination of International Research Cooperation on soil CArbon Sequestration in Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.15454/LSWRDG
Published by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences a new book deals with the reduction of food loss and waste globally. It includes an article that sums up results of the EU research project REFRESH, and in particular the work on policies to reduce consumer food waste, lead by the Ecologic Institute. The book is available for download.
Recent Multimedia Publications by Ecologic Institute
Event:Digital Event
The results of the research focus "Plastics in the Environment" will be presented in a webinar series. The participation in the webinars is free of charge; registration in advance is required.
What might social-ecological data governance look like that preserves individual rights and freedoms, ensures participation, and contributes to sustainable urban development? Is the data generated by daily mobility behaviour private or public in nature? What does this mean for data sharing or for targeted and sustainable use of the data? What roles can so-called intermediaries like a data trustee play? In the eleventh edition of Wandelwecker, our morning feature for a social and ecological metropolis, we discussed these questions with two renowned experts.
From 16 to 26 May 2022, the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) will convene a two-week ETS training course to provide basic training on emissions trading in Asian countries. Over two weeks consisting of eight course days, participants will learn the basic concepts and key elements of emissions trading through a mix of presentations from expert speakers and policy practitioners as well as interactive activities. Each session will draw on examples and experiences from existing ETS to explain the main design choices for setting up new ETS and to convey solutions for their implementation.