The EU-funded research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) held its launch event from 23 to 25 January 2013 in Brussels. The meeting was organized by Ecologic Institute, coordinator of the research project, and the Institute for Environmental Security (IES).
The meeting brought together researchers from 11 European universities and think tanks. The meeting was the kick-off to...Read more
As renewable energy sources are more widely used and corresponding support systems expanded, the economic significance of the sector is also growing. This, in turn, also leads to a growing potential for trade disputes involving renewable energy production. In this project on renewable energy law, the Ecologic Institute together with the Institute for Economic Law of the University Halle-Wittenberg provides scientific advice to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety. The project focuses on the international legal framework relevant to supportRead more
In May 2012, Benjamin Boteler of Ecologic Institute was invited to present at the international conference "Key Developments in the Port and Maritime Sector" on the latest developments in EU and international environmental policy and their implications for the sector. The conference, held in Antwerp (Belgium) and organised by the World Conference on Transport Research Society - Special Interest Groups 2 Maritime and Ports, brought together a rich mix of academics, industry representatives, and policy makers to present and discuss state-of-the-art scientific developments in the sector.Read more
Developing countries are the main providers of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Conversely, most intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds and medicines are concentrated in developed countries. The study concludes that this has some disadvantages for developing countries. Thus, patents on seed or pharmaceutical products sometimes make the access to such products for the poor more difficult and expensive; there are hardly any positive effects of IPRs on fighting poverty by contrast. This is the result of a study, presented by Christiane Gerstetter (Ecologic Institute) andRead more
Information on the environmental characteristics of products, such as on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused during their production or their energy efficiency, are essential in order to allow consumers to make informed choices about which products to buy. This project investigated different design options for product-related environmental information addressed at consumers. Ecologic Institute contributed, in particular, an analysis of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) requirements for legal rules on environmental labels. The study is available for download.
The projectRead more
Developing countries are the main providers of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Conversely, most intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds and medicines are concentrated in developed countries. This has some disadvantages for developing countries. Thus, patents on seed or pharmaceutical products sometimes make the access to such products for the poor more difficult and expensive; there are hardly any positive effects of IPRs on fighting poverty by contrast. This is the result of a study for the European Parliament that Ecologic Institute helped to write. The study and aRead more
The study "An Assessment of the Balancing of EU Development Objectives with Other Policies and Priorities", to which Ecologic Institute contributed, evaluates the coherence between the EU’s development policies and its other policies. Its authors describe the positive and negative impacts of these policies on development priorities and provide recommendations to achieve better policy coherence. The study was commissioned by the European Parliament and is available for download.
In November 2005, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to promoting policy coherence forRead more
