Ecologic Institute

What is the state of sustainable development in the European Union? The 2009 Eurostat monitoring report reviews the progress and implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy.

The 2009 monitoring report was published on the Eurostat website. As partner in a consortium with the Vienna University of Economic and Business (RIMAS), INFRAS, and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Ecologic Institute played a substantial role in drafting the monitoring report on behalf of Eurostat. Read more ...

German agriculture is responsible for approximately 11% of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and thus there is considerable potential for increased mitigation efforts in this sector. The Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) commissioned the Ecologic Institute to analyze the mitigation potential of German agriculture and the necessary policy measures to support emission reductions. The analysis points to a number of measures which can, along with obligatory reduction targets for both agriculture and land-use change, deliver significant GHG-emission reductions. The study is available for download. Read more ...

The role of agriculture in future climate policies and different bioenergy applications were discussed at an Ecologic Transatlantic Riverside Chat that took place on the Potomac River in Washington DC on 10 July 2009. The event was part of the second transatlantic farmer-to-farmer exchange that brought together farmers from Germany and the US, as well as scientists and journalists with an agricultural background. Read more ...

In order to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and address key pressures and impacts from agriculture activities, this project developed a catalogue of measures for tackling agricultural pollution. The catalogue serves as a EU-wide information base and is designed to support Member States in developing programmes of measures in their river basin management plans. This catalogue of measures is a living document that is updated on a regularly basis, which is particularly important to make use of the experiences gained under the first cycle of the WFD in future planning cycles. Read more ...

The Ecologic Institute coordinates the five-year project RADOST (Regional Adaptation Strategies for the German Baltic Sea Coast). The Baltic coastline of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein is one of seven model regions in Germany that are supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the funding activity KLIMZUG ("Managing climate change in the regions for the future"). The aim of the RADOST project is to develop regional adaptation strategies in a dialogue between research institutions, business, public administration and civil society. The research network project RADOST is held its first annual conference, which took place on the 24 - 25 March 2010 in Schwerin. The conference was conducted under the auspices of the Ministry of Economics, Labor and Tourism of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Please find a summary and some contributions at the project website Read more ...

This policy brief outlines the positions and relative influence of the main German stakeholders on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. These became visible through responses to the Health Check agreement of the CAP and the upcoming Mid-Term Budget Review. Based on this analysis, the policy brief discusses the main issues and directions of the CAP debate in Germany and the likely overall German position towards the future CAP reform in Brussels. Read more ...

Rural areas face a number of new challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and the increasing demand for biomass. In this project, a series of conferences with different themes and a wide range of actors will investigate new strategies for innovation in rural areas, compliant with environmentally friendly economic activities. Read more ...

The project compiles available scientific information on the likely impact of bioenergy production on water quality and water resources. The results of this project were presented in a background paper entiteled "WFD and Bioenergy production at the EU Level - A review of the possible impact of biomass production from agriculture on water" for the European conference "Water Framework Directive and Agriculture" in Paris, 21-22 September 2007. Read more ...

The European Environment Agency (EEA) provides decision-makers with information needed to make sound and effective decisions in the policy making process with the aim to protect the environment and support sustainable development. Within a framework contract, Ecologic supports the EEA in this task by undertaking an agri-environmental analysis relating to agri-environment indicators, farm management, bio-energy production, the spatial distribution of CAP subsidies and dissemination of EEA results. Read more ...

From 2-4 October 2008, a joint German-US conference convened 80 scientists from both sides of the Atlantic to address future land use strategies and identifying common research goals. A complementing post-conference program included field visits to the Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the German Meteorological Service (DWD).

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In 2006, the European Community adopted a new regulation dealing with the geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs. Ecologic, along with ADAS and London Economics, carried out an evaluation of the scheme focusing on the development and effectiveness of Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) systems. Read more ...

This project focuses on analysing the potentials of voluntary agri-environmental extension services to reduce diffuse agricultural pollution in the Baltic Sea area. Read more ...

Bioenergy and climate friendly farming practices were discussed at the first in a series of Transatlantic Ecologic Riverside Chats that took place in Berlin on 17 August 2007. The event was held on the occasion of the visit of 30 farmers as well as policy makers, scientists, and journalists with an agricultural background from within Germany and the United States in the context of a transatlantic farmer-to-farmer exchange. Read more ...

On 9-19 August 2007, a transatlantic Farmer-to-Farmer exchange program brought together 30 farmers, policy makers, scientists, and journalists from the United States and Europe with an agricultural background. The program included field visits to farms and biomass processing facilities in Germany and the U.S. Read more ...

For a sustainable development within the EU all social costs of economic activities have to be considered. The integrated project EXIOPOL aims to assess these costs, which include environmental impacts, for the EU-25 and will depict them in an environmentally extended input-output framework. The results of the assessment and the accounting framework will be applied to important policy issues and will help to assess the policy impact of past research. Read more ...

9 May 2007, Leipzig - Rainer Müssner
A large percentage of Europe’s territory consists of rural areas that contain more than half of its population. Many problems of European societies such as an ageing population, high unemployment rates, social disparities and the lack of adaptive potential to the global market are more pronounced in rural areas than elsewhere. To overcome these problems, it is essential to link public, private and inter-sectoral initiatives to foster innovation. Rainer Müssner presented the EU-funded project RAPIDO, that has been established to analyse current best practices concerning the development of innovation in agriculture, forestry, the food sector and the wider rural areas, as well as to analyse methods to transfer knowledge to different target groups. Read more ...

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) poses enormous challenges to the Member States as well as to the European Commission. As part of a pan-European consortium, Ecologic supports the European Commission in the implementation of the Directive. The main objective is to provide independent, impartial and punctual advice on scientific, socio-economic and technical issues related to the WFD. Read more ...

Under its mandate for 2005-06, the Strategic Steering Group (SSG) on WFD and Agriculture has initiated numerous activities including five issues reports and two important conferences hosted under the UK and Austrian presidency, respectively. Due to the huge amount of information and debates produced by these activities, a synthesis of the SSG activities during the duration of this mandate was identified to be necessary. The European Commission, DG Environment commissioned Ecologic to prepare this synthesis document. Read more ...

25 April 2006, Malinska - Thomas Dworak
On behalf of the European Commission, DG Environment, Ecologic Fellow Thomas Dworak participated in a workshop on the WFD and Agriculture and gave a presentation on EU agricultural policies and water management. The workshop was held in Malinska, Croatia on 25-26 April 2006 and organised by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) together with the UNDP-GEF Danube Regional Project. Read more ...

One of the key elements of the latest 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is compulsory compliance with environmental, food safety, animal welfare, and animal and plant health standards. Additionally it is required that farmers maintain their farmland in good agricultural and environmental condition as a condition for receiving direct payments. The project will focus on the investigation of the value-added resulting from introducing cross-compliance as a tool to improve compliance with existing standards; and the investigation of the cost implications and competition effects of compliance to EU standards on the world market. Read more ...

On 19-21 February, 2003 the international conference entitled "EU: CAP and Enlargement - An Opportunity for Environment and Nature?" took place in Potsdam, Germany. The primary goal of the conference was to analyse and discuss the complex interactions between EU enlargement, the Common Agricultural Policy and the related impacts on nature and environment. In October 2003 the conference proceedings have been published in the series BfN-Skripten of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Read more ...

On behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety an international Workshop entitled "EU: CAP and Enlargement - An Opportunity for Environment and Nature?" was carried out by Ecologic on February 19-21, 2003 in Potsdam, Germany. The primary goal of the conference was to analyse and discuss the complex interactions between EU enlargement, the Common Agricultural Policy and the related impacts on nature and environment within different scenarios. Read more ...