Ecologic Institute

This year there is even more reason than usual to celebrate: 15 years of successful work at the Institute and the 50th consortium project within the research framework programmes of the European Commission. In addition to this, we are able to welcome our 100th colleague to the Ecologic team with the arrival of Prof. Dr. Christoph Stefes. Ecologic Institute will be celebrating all of this on Wednesday the 1 September 2010, starting at 6pm at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) at Gendarmenmarkt in the Berlin-Mitte district. Read more ...

After the disappointing climate summit in Copenhagen in late 2009, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol are continuing their search for common ground in order to build a future climate change regime. Currently, they are preparing for the upcoming climate summit at the end of the year in Mexico, their first conference of the parties since Copenhagen. Dr. Camilla Bausch and Dr. Ralph Bodle of Ecologic Legal continue to support the German delegation and EU team in the negotiations. In this capacity, they participated in the negotiations in June and August 2010 in Bonn and will travel to China in October to continue this work. Read more ...

30 August 2010, Bled - R. Andreas Kraemer
The Slovenian Government's annual Bled Strategic Forum promotes high-level dialogue among leaders on key issues facing Europe and the 21st Century world, allowing Europe to better use its strategic space and leverage, and builds political commitment to these strategies. At the 2010 forum, R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute provided input and moderated the panel on "The Water Challenge" focusing on threats to and from the water environment, human security, cooperation, and the avoidance of international conflict. Read more ...

This project is an important project of the European Commission for preparing its comprehensive adaptation strategy. It aims at evaluating water related vulnerability to climate change impacts and  identifying adequate adaptation measures. It sheds light on vulnerability and adaptive capacity in different affected sectors and across  Europe’s river basins. The project shall thereby support coherency, timeliness and effectiveness of climate change adaptation efforts throughout Europe. Read more ...

4 August 2010, Vancouver - Tanja Srebotnjak
Tanja Srebotnjak represented Ecologic Institute at the largest gathering of statisticians and practitioners of statistics in North America, the Joint Statistical Meetings, which this year took place in the Olympic City of Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Srebotnjak presented a paper on small area estimation of local health effects and risk factors illustrating her modeling and validation framework for the prevalent lack of health care insurance in the US. Read more ...

At  the end of this year in Cancún, Mexico, a Roadmap for a binding climate agreement should be in place. After finding themselves at the sidelines of what was a disappointing Copenhagen summit, it is even more important that Europeans now inject new life into the negotiations. Read more ...

23 March 2010, Berlin - Stephanie Schlegel
In 2010 the German Energy Agency GmbH (dena) and the German American Chambers of Commerce (AHK USA) organized the 2nd German American Energy Conference. This year’s conference was themed „Promising Markets for Renewables and Energy Efficiency”. It offered information about current trends and support frameworks within U.S. and EU energy markets and how companies can benefit from them. The event attracted more than 400 participating experts and high level speakers. Within a panel discussion Stephanie Schlegel, Fellow und Coordinator Bioenergy and Agriculture at the Ecologic Institute spoke about opportunities for German biomass companies in the U.S. market and the relevance of sustainability requirements for the further development of transatlantic bioenergy markets. Read more ...

The financial and economic crisis that Germany has been going through since 2008 has shed a new light on the pros and cons of economic growth and the methods of measuring welfare. Whereas some indicators indicate that the worst effects of the crisis are behind us, others reveal that we may not have seen the end of the crisis just yet. In the 2/2010 edition of “Berliner Republik”, Benjamin Görlach, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, discussed how the crisis has played out in different economic indicators, why politics still resort to GDP as the main indicator for economic welfare and what the perspectives are for establishing alternative indicators. Read more ...

15 June 2010, Marseille - Maria Berglund
In recent years, it has almost become conventional wisdom that climate change is a threat to human security. Both politicians and scientists have called climate change a conflict trigger or multiplier. However, empirically-based research on the relationship between climate change, resource scarcity and conflict is often absent. At the workshop on "Climate-induced migration in the MENA", Maria Berglund presented the FP7 project "Climate change, Hydro-conflicts and Human Security (CLICO)", aiming to address these research gaps. Read more ...

The goal of the study “Expanding the evidence base for consumer policies” is to contribute to the understanding of consumer behaviour and to how policies might best be designed to influence choice regarding environmental products and services. The study draws on knowledge from the field of behavioural economics and develops a series of hypotheses relating to consumer choice in regard to environmental goods and services. In addition, a blueprint to assess consumer policies is established. Read more ...

As part of the Transatlantic Climate Bridge, an informational trip for a group of political decision makers and entrepreneurs from the southern United States took place from 6 to 12 June 2010. The programme informed the participants about job creation in a “green” economy by using Germany as an example. In so doing, the main challenges and opportunities of a progressive climate and energy policy were presented. In addition to the focus on law making and political factors, other important aspects of the programme were the information exchange with experts in this field and the identification of best practice examples. The tour was organized and implemented by the Ecologic Institute. Read more ...

Baden-Württemberg, Germany’s third biggest Bundesland, is in the process of revising its climate mitigation strategy. The new “Climate Mitigation Strategy 2020PLUS” is to be presented by the end of 2010 and will serve as a guideline for future climate policy. Ecologic Institute assists the Ministry for the Environment and Transport of Baden-Württemberg in developing the strategy. As a project manager, Ecologic Institutes provides both scientific and organisational support, including facilitation of stakeholder and expert consultation. Read more ...

Road transport is the most important driver for increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union and is therefore critical to achieving the EU’s 20% greenhouse gas reduction target in 2020. The objective is to decouple economic growth and the demand for transport with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This video (8:36 Min.) visualizes European data on economic growth, transport and greenhouse gas emissions. Read more ...

From 16 to 22 May 2010, a visitors programme on climate and renewable energy took place in Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig. The programme was organised by the Ecologic Institute in co-operation with the German Federal Foreign Office, addressing policy-makers at the state, regional and municipal level as well as journalists. The programme included appointments with experts from ministries, think tanks and NGOs as well as field trips to companies in the field of renewable energies (biomass, solar and windpower). Read more ...