In the first week of July the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) had invited to its 8th Biennial Conference to Versailles. Under the motto “Greening history: Studying the environment across disciplines: past, present, future” environmental historians from around the world met to exchange their empirical findings for a sustainable future and to discuss further applied research trends amongst the humanities.

On 22 June 2015, Eleftheria Kampa, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute gave a presentation on the German Forum on fish protection and downstream migration at the 5th International Fish Passage Conference in the Netherlands. In her presentation, she illustrated how the Forum has been a successful instrument for participation and improving acceptance for measures on fish protection and downstream migration, which are a topic of intensive and often controversial discussions in recent years in Germany. The presentation slides are available for download.

In the debates about the new climate and energy framework for 2030 and the proposed Energy Union, the European Commission and the Council call for increased regional cooperation between Member States. In addition to strengthening the internal market, this cooperation is meant to facilitate the implementation of the EU 2030 energy efficiency and renewable targets. Both are defined for the Union as a whole, but not for single Memeber States. On 17 June 2015, Katharina Umpfenbach presented the working paper "Regional cooperation in the context of the new 2030 energy governance" in Berlin that takes a closer look at the existing landscape of regional institutions in the European electricity sector to explore their potential contribution to an effective furture governance framework. The presentation is available for download.

As part of the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2015, Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute chaired the session, "Safeguarding our Shores: Social and Cultural Dimensions of Coastal Climate Change Adaptation in Europe and the United States." During the session, which took place at the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA), the origins and meanings of flood protection programs, adaptation measures and strategies in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and the US were discussed. Dr. Nico Stelljes provided a presentation about local adaptation strategies. The presentation is available for download.

The compatibility of national measures to support renewable energy schemes with international trade and investment law was the topic of a presentation by Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow, Ecologic Legal. The presentation was part of the Annual Conference on European Environmental Law of the Academy of European Law at Trier (Germany). The presentation slides are available for download.

On 10 April 2015, Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic Institute's legal team, gave a presentation on the relationship between international trade and environmental agreements at a conference of the Protestant Academy Hofgeismar. The conference centered on the topic: "Natural enemies – Environmental protection and free global trade as a legal and political problem." The presentation slides are available for download.

Christoph Stefes, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented during the one-day workshop "Making a case against environmental crime" his case study on environmental crime in the mining sector of the Republic of Armenia. The case study looks at the causes of environmental crime in Armenia, taking the mining sector as an example. It describes measures that the European Union could take to contribute to preventing future environmental crime in the country. The case study is available for download.

Invited by BfN (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation) and ENCA (European Network of Heads of Nature Conservation Agencies), Sandra Naumann, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation titled "Nature-Based Solutions – The Case of Sustainable Urbanization". Drawing on the outcomes from the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities commissioned by DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission and in which Sandra Naumann took part, the talk outlined the EU Research and Innovation Agenda on nature-based solutions (NBS) with a particular focus on sustainable urbanization.

Invited by the IASS (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies) and in cooperation with Ecologic Institute, Michael K. Orbach (Duke University Professor of the Practice Emeritus of Marine Policy) gave a presentation entitled, "Social Sciences in Ocean Policy and Resilience of Coastal Communities – What in the world is going on in America?" Drawing on studies undertaken by Ecologic Institute and Duke University investigating both Germany and the U.S., the talk described the cultural phenomena that underlie public policy regarding climate change in these two countries, with a focus on the U.S.

Ana Frelih-Larsen, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation to a group of international journalists during an Informational Tour for Journalists and Experts in the context of the Green Week in Berlin. She gave an overview of the process of climate change mainstreaming in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), outlining the underlying scientific evidence base and discussing the basic principles of mainstreaming. She further illustrated the various tools that Member States can use to integrate climate objectives in the CAP 2014-2020 and discussed the key practical aspects and barriers to mainstreaming implementation.

Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf testified in the Bundestag on investment protection under CETA on 15 December 2014 (Committee of Economy and Energy). He argued that investment protection in CETA is superfluous because the EU and Canada already provide high levels of investment protection through their national legal systems. His statement is available for download (in German only) or in Bundestag document 18 (9) 300.

When and why were environmental think tanks founded in Germany? How is the system for environmental consulting organized in Germany today? What is the daily work of an environmental think tank? Susanne Langsdorf, researcher at Ecologic Institute, presented the system in which environmental research and consultancy is organised in Germany and the daily work of an environmental think tank to students.

On 19 November 2014, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the European research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE)" at the 4th Annual General Meeting of the European Network for Environmental Crime (EnviCrimeNet) in The Hague (Netherlands). Ecologic Institute is the coordinator of the EFFACE project. The presentation slides are available for download.

On 14 November 2014 the workshop "model examples for prevention and management of marine litter in the Baltic and North" was held at Ecologic Institute in Berlin. Stefanie Schmidt presented "Governance schemes and measures for the prevention of marine litter -case study Germany," which were analyzed in the context of CLEANSEA. Following her presentation, she discussed with participating stakeholders from government, industry, academia and environmental organizations, the strengths and weaknesses of the existing approach and considered need and options for action. The presentation slides are available for download.

Ina Krüger's presentation gives a brief introduction to the ongoing works on task 5.2 of the CleanSea project, for which model cases are analysed concerning their current and possible future contribution to the prevention and management of marine litter in the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Sea. In the first part of this presentation the preliminary results of the analysis matrix are presented. In the second part, a model case on the collection and recycling of ghost nets is analysed and discussed in depth. The presentation slides are available for download.