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.

The year 2021 saw a positive dynamic on climate action internationally, despite the pandemic and its negative impacts on people’s well-being and on the global economy. Especially, the reverse in the US approach to the climate crisis has provided a new boost. Moreover, COP26 in Glasgow created political momentum, as it has shown a global spotlight on the need for international action and on various forms of cooperation to achieve the 1.5 °C target. In 2022, there are several windows of opportunity for further advances in multilateral cooperation on the climate crisis, including in the G7 and G20 discussions, led by Germany and Indonesia, respectively. And the new German government has reiterated its desire to create a new "climate club" in this context. This report contains several proposals for specific new initiatives that could be started.

To develop challenge-driven and solutions-orientated research, the COACCH project has sought to proactively involve stakeholders in a process of co-design, co-production and co-delivery. This report summarises insights and key messages from the evaluation of this collaborative process and proposes guidelines with practical steps for best practice in collaborative research.

The aim of this manual is to increase the effectiveness of measures to reduce food waste. It focuses on the reduction of waste in private households, although the approach is in principle also suitable for planning measures in other sectors. The manual is available for download.

The report "Intercomparison of Ecological Potential for Rivers" reviews and intercompares the methods used in European countries to define the ecological potential of river heavily modified water bodies. The report has been developed as part of an intercomparison exercise, which took place in the Water Framework Directive Common Implementation Strategy (WFD CIS) in 2019-2021. The report presents and summarises the information provided by European countries on the application of steps of CIS Guidance no. 37 "Steps for defining and assessing ecological potential for improving comparability of Heavily Modified Water Bodies" in the 3rd River Basin Management Plans.

Cleveringa, J., Kampa, E., 2021. Intercomparison of ecological potential for Transitional and Coastal waters (TraC). Amersfoort, Berlin: Arcadis, Ecologic Institute.

Wolfram, G., Konecny, R., Kampa, E., 2021. Intercomparison of ecological potential for Lakes and Reservoirs. Vienna, Berlin: Environment Agency, DWS Hydro-Ökologie, Ecologic Institute.

This report aims at 1) providing German and EU stakeholders and decision-makers with evidence-based material to inform Germany’s CAP strategic plan intervention logic, and 2) providing a reference point for the evaluation of the German government's own needs assessment in their CAP strategic plan.

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.

Piria, Raffaele 2021 : Critical Review of the IPHE Working Paper "Methodology for Determining the GHG Emissions Associated with the Production of Hydrogen". adelphi, Oeko-Institut, Berlin, October 2021.

The project "Elaborating Strategies and Contributions to Implement SDG12 on the National Level for Germany" established systematic activity monitoring for the national and international implementation of SDG 12 by Germany. The aim: to determine the implementation status – in addition to the UN and DNS sustainability indicators for SDG 12 – and derive potential options for action. This report presents the project results.

In the "Smart Energy Showcase" programme (SINTEG), more than 300 research institutes and companies in five model regions developed solutions for a future energy system that will be entirely based on renewable energies. The participants not only developed new technologies, processes and market mechanisms, they also proposed changes to the legal framework that would allow those solutions to be scaled up. Commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy that initiated SINTEG, Ecologic Institute just published a systematic overview of the issues addressed in these proposals for regulatory change. Moreover, the report discusses the proposals in the context of the ongoing national energy policy debate.

This research report studies the Asian perspectives on a global plastic pollution treaty against the background of a growing momentum for the establishment of a negotiation process during the second part of the fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) in February 2022. It identifies solutions already pursued by Asian countries to tackle marine plastic pollution, describes the challenges and needs expressed by government officials from the region, and discusses possible treaty elements taking into account experiences of countries in the Asian region.

Promising approaches were identified via participatory stakeholder workshops, that could contribute to establishing circular construction in Berlin. Such approaches include a stronger orientation of the legal framework towards the circular economy, for example through an obligation to selective deconstruction in the Berlin Building Code. On the other hand, there is a need for even stronger public procurement of circular approaches in the building sector by facilitating the consideration of life-cycle costs in procurement practice. With the combination of these approaches, it seems possible to establish Berlin as a Circular City in the building sector in the long term.

This report gives a European overview of the main drivers and pressures that are at the core of key water management challenges putting European water bodies most at risk of not achieving key environmental objectives.