We are pleased to announce the appointment of Christoph Heinrich as the new Director of Ecologic Institute. He will assume his position on 1 August 2024. Christoph Heinrich takes over from Dr. Camilla Bausch, who is stepping down at the end of this summer after more than 20 years of dedicated work, including almost a decade as Director.

The 2024 publication is Eurostat's eight regular report monitoring progress towards the SDGs in an EU context.  Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Climate Action (SDG 13), Life Below Water (SDG 14), Life on Land (SDG 15) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). 

This report takes stock of national climate governance systems across EU Member States. It highlights strengths and weaknesses and identifies specific EU-level policy options to 'level up' and improve national practices and processes. Effective climate governance requires procedural safeguards to maintain consistent and unified action towards climate neutrality. This includes certainty regarding the pace and direction of the transition, accountability for commitments made, consistency across different sectors and over time, consensus between state and private actors.

The EU will soon adopt a climate target for 2040 and a framework for its implementation. These will be pivotal milestones towards achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and net negative emissions. It is essential to implement rules for significant emission reductions in industry, as the integrity of EU climate policy depends on their effectiveness. This report by Ecologic Institute and Oeko-Institut compares the industrial sector's contribution to emission reductions so far and analyses its contribution to the 2040 climate target. The report focuses on measures that enable further reductions, identifies challenges facing the industrial sector and explores the ways in which these are addressed in EU legislation.

Following the recent EU election, the challenge now arises of how to maintain the momentum towards climate neutrality while navigating the evolving political landscape. The focus now shifts to implementing the policy framework left behind by the last Commission, while simultaneously developing new, ambitious climate policies. In this episode of "Climate ON AIR", hosts Aaron Best and Bradlie Martz-Sigala discuss the best path forward for EU climate policy with Bettina Kampman (CE Delft) and Benjamin Görlach (Ecologic Institute).

The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was officially adopted in June 2024. The NRL obliges EU Member States (MS) to restore ecosystems. This guidance compiles useful resources for Member States to support ecosystem restoration planning. It aims to help MS contextualize, design and plan restoration measures in their national restoration plans and includes links to established (i) guidelines and standards, (ii) key platforms and networks and (iii) databases.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 calls on cities to promote urban nature through “Urban Nature Plans” for the protection of biodiversity, for climate protection and adaptation and for the quality of life in cities and to set ambitious targets for this. This brochure transfers the approach of Urban Nature Plans to the German context and provides concrete implementation advice. This includes a checklist to determine the extent to which a municipality's existing plans already correspond to Urban Nature Plans. A central component of the brochure is the methodological guide for developing and implementing Urban Nature Plans.

Chairing and Speech: McKenna Davis, Natalia Burgos Cuevas

Policymakers, researchers, and environmental experts gathered in Brussels on 26-27 June 2024 to kick off the EU-LAC Policy Dialogue conference on Nature-Based Solutions (NbS). Organized by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, the event was attended by over 100 participants from 28 countries, including 15 from Latin America and 13 from Europe. The event highlighted the importance of cross-continental collaboration in advancing NbS to tackle environmental and societal challenges. Natalia Burgos Cuevas and McKenna Davis from Ecologic Institute co-moderated part of the event, focusing on enhancing technical skills, innovative financing, and improved governance frameworks for effective NbS implementation.

On 10 July 2024, Doris Knoblauch and Felix Nütz from the Ecologic Institute presented the Plastic Pirates project at the Danube Festival. At their booth, they conducted experiments to illustrate the problem of plastic pollution, particularly microplastics. Many visitors were surprised to learn that microplastics can be found not only in exfoliating products but even in common table salt. In addition to the experiments, visitors could examine results from previous years and get information about the upcoming activities in autumn 2024. From September 15 to November 15, 2024, the Plastic Pirates Germany will focus on the Danube River System to investigate plastic pollution and collect valuable, cross-border data.

Heavy rainfall events are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, especially in cities. The NICHES project is looking for innovative solutions to adapt to these extreme weather events and is conducting an online survey to analyze the impact of heavy rainfall and the effectiveness of current adaptation measures. The aim is to evaluate existing approaches and develop new, effective strategies. Your participation in the survey can contribute to improving heavy rain management. As a thank you, we will be giving away 30 sustainably produced footballs among all participants.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have immense potential to address various environmental challenges, but their success hinges on the inclusive and meaningful engagement of all stakeholders. To better understand how to foster truly inclusive engagement in the co-creation of NbS, NetworkNature's Nature-based Solutions (NbS) Taskforce 6 on Co-creation and Governance invites you to participate in a short survey.