This policy brief summarizes the results of 17 case studies of non-EU countries. It presents the main lessons and takeaways for the EU along the four challenges that define the 4i-TRACTION project: facilitating integration across sectors, shifting investments, rolling out infrastructure and fostering innovation for a climate-neutral economy.

This Think 2030 policy brief proceeds in five parts. Section 1 defines what a sustainable agri-food system should look like according to the scientific literature and how an Sustainable Food System (SFS) law could bring EU food systems more in line with the evidence. Section 2 then explores the potential objectives of a law and how to define a sustainable EU agri-food system. Section 3 discusses the architecture of the law, and section 4 explores the need for a multi-level governance framework involving Member States. Finally, the conclusion considers possible political pathways to the achievement of an ambitious SFS law. The policy brief is available for download.

This Think2030 policy brief highlights the importance of adopting an ambitious EU nature restoration law – given the manifold benefits of restoration to nature, people, and the economy – and discusses what is needed to ensure that the restoration targets are achieved by Member States. It formulates a series of recommendations for Member States and the EU institutions to facilitate the successful implementation of the upcoming law.

This policy brief investigates the gaps in the existing international treaties on marine plastic pollution and proposes components that need to be considered in a new treaty. These proposals will complement the G20 work on plastic pollution. Furthermore, since the G20 summit will be held in Indonesia in 2022, the focus of this policy brief will not only be relevant to G20 countries but also to Southeast Asia as the biggest contributor of marine plastics.

This policy brief surveys the current state and recent development of the Arctic blue economy in the five Arctic coastal states (Canada, Denmark, USA, Russia and Norway), as well as the Arctic High Seas, to understand potential impacts on Arctic marine biodiversity. It also analyses the driving factors behind these developments.

BE Rural developed and piloted a new framework to help decision makers consider ecological limits when drafting regional bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps, and with this to contribute to Priority 3 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy: "Understand the ecological boundaries of the bioeconomy".

This briefing paper, co-authored by Ecologic Institute's Natalia Burgos Cuevas, provides an overview of how the climate change–human mobility nexus has been addressed in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted thus far by South American countries and identifies pathways towards improved management of population movements in revised NDCs. To date, a partial integration of the human mobility perspective prevails: References to the topic indicate a slow – but progressive – acknowledgment of the impacts of a changing climate in vulnerable communities, which may include human displacement. Given the urgent need to move forward from the recognition of the topic to the establishment of effective measures to tackle forced population movements associated with the impacts of climate change, the updating of NDCs – currently under way in the region – entails an opportunity to incorporate strategies aimed at enhancing the management of human mobility.

This study analysed if and how EU Member States used their auctioning revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) for climate action. For this purpose, we selected eight case study countries, namely Czech, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal. As part of these case studies, we examined the reporting, the legal provisions and the political narrative around auctioning revenues through desk research and expert interviews.

The German government has put the formation of an 'ambitious, bold, and cooperative' climate club on top of its G7 Presidency agenda. But what is a climate club? And what type of climate club should the German G7 Presidency push toward? This policy brief provides some answers to these questions and formulates recommendations for the German Presidency.

The 2020s are the pivotal decade to get on the path to climate neutrality by 2050. EU climate policy needs to rise to this challenge. How must EU climate policymaking evolve to become transformative? This policy brief of the 4i-TRACTION project sets out conceptual hallmarks required for attaining climate neutrality in the EU.

Transforming and decarbonising industry is essential for reaching climate-neutrality and the goals of the Paris Agreement. How can the G7 accelerate the decarbonisation of industry? Ecologic Institute's policy brief maps out a number of opportunities and potential priorities for the German Presidency. The Recommendations are available for download.

From sector coupling to hydrogen, from the implementation of the Climate Protection Legislation to the European Green Deal: Achieving climate neutrality requires coordinated and effective policy management across individual departments. Climate policy is a cross-cutting task, because all sectors, from power generation to industry, buildings, transport and agriculture, must become greenhouse gas neutral without delay. Experts from the Ariadne Copernicus project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), have examined central problems of government control of German climate policy and presented options for solutions. The paper was also sent to negotiators of the coalition talks in the run-up to publication.

This policy brief examines current proposals for the further expansion of photovoltaics. It shows that the two central goals – accelerating the PV expansion and involving residents – are in tension with each other, at least in the short term. Based on the analysis, the following sequence of measures is proposed: First, as an immediate intervention, PV plants that feed all of their electricity generation into the grid should be made economically viable again.

Forests and the ocean are vital for climate, biological diversity, and human communities, but they are degraded and their ecosystem services are seriously impaired, mainly because financial, economic and governance structures are misconfigured. The authors of this T20 policy brief propose that G20 help strengthen the REDD+ climate instrument for forests and extend it to Blue Carbon from coastal and marine ecosystems. Scaled up to cover the Earth's two largest, most diverse and most productive ecosystems, these two approaches can deliver significant economic and climate benefits. The T20 policy brief is available for download.

Bueb, Benedict, Tröltzsch, Jenny (2021): Policy Brief: Towards Sustainable Adaptation Pathways A Concept for Integrative Actions to Achieve the 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework. Dessau-Roßlau: Umweltbundesamt