1. EPOS Summer School on Methods and Tools for Impact Assessment, 16-20 June, Berlin - Announcement
2. Demographic Change and Sustainability: A Generational Balance - Publication
3. Legal Problems of Weather Modification - Publication
4. Climate change-induced water stress and its impacts on natural and managed ecosystems - Study online
5. Analysis of the Tisza River Basin 2007 - Study online
6. Efficient Climate Policy through Flexible Mechanisms - Publication
7. A Framework for Tool Selection and Use in Integrated Assessment for Sustainable Development - Publication
8. Broadening the view: From biofuel standards to an international standard-setting scheme for the sustainable use of natural resources - Lecture

1. EPOS Summer School on Methods and Tools for Impact Assessment, 16-20 June, Berlin - Announcement
Ecologic, together with IÖW - Institute for Ecological Economy Research, will host a summer school on Methods and Tools for Impact Assessment in June this year. The summer school addresses young scientists and consultants from European institutes who are involved in sustainable development and environmental research and want to improve their knowledge and skills in impact assessment. The programme combines input lectures with practical training sessions on relevant methods, such as stakeholder participation, scenario building, multi-criteria analysis, and cost-benefit analysis.
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2. Demographic Change and Sustainability: A Generational Balance - Publication
Germany's population is shrinking. While a growing population has long been understood as a threat to the environment, a shrinking population does not automatically improve the environmental situation. But what are the environmental sustainability implications of demographic trends in Germany? In their publication "Demographic Change and Sustainability: A Generational Balance", R. Andreas Kraemer, Daniel Blobel, Anneke von Raggamby and Doris Knoblauch develop approaches for a generational balance in selected areas, namely natural resource use (energy supply, settlement and transport) and nature conservation.
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3. Legal Problems of Weather Modification - Publication
Is there a legal right to weather? Weather modification technologies have been used for over 50 years. Clouds are seeded with chemicals in order to induce or prevent rain or hail. In his article, Ralph Czarnecki, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, analyses perspectives on a future weather law against the background of scarcer precipitation and the ensuing problems such as "rain theft" and distributional justice.
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4. Climate change-induced water stress and its impacts on natural and managed ecosystems - Study online
Impacts of climate change include increasing water scarcity and flood risk, along with decline in water quality. This study explores which ecosystems will be most impacted and analyses how the effects of climate change act as causes of additional emissions, thereby reinforcing global warming in a positive feedback loop. The paper was prepared for the European Parliament by Ecologic jointly with the Institute for European Environmental Policies (IEEP) and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). The study is available online.
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5. Analysis of the Tisza River Basin 2007 - Study online
The Tisza River Basin Analysis Report is an important step towards the preparation of the Tisza river basin management plan under the EU Water Framework Directive. Ecologic assisted the Tisza Expert Group of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube in the preparation of this report, which is now available for download.
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6. Efficient Climate Policy through Flexible Mechanisms - Publication
The article by Dr. Camilla Bausch and Jonathan Donehower analyses the flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol used by the international community to fight rising carbon emissions. The most prominent example of regional implementation of emissions trading, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), is presented in detail with an outlook on potential future improvements.
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7. A Framework for Tool Selection and Use in Integrated Assessment for Sustainable Development - Publication
Integrated assessment is rapidly spreading as a practice at different levels of governance. However, the choice of using certain tools in an assessment is often not well founded. In this paper, Wouter de Ridder, John Turnpenny, Måns Nilsson and Anneke von Raggamby present a framework that scientifically underpins the role of, and thus choice of, tools within an integrated assessment.
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8. Broadening the view: From biofuel standards to an international standard-setting scheme for the sustainable use of natural resources - Lecture
As part of a series of European conferences on human dimensions research, the Berlin conference this year focused on governance of social-ecological change. Timo Kaphengst showed in his presentation, how the current debate on sustainable standards for biofuels could be used to create an international standard-setting scheme for the sustainable use of all natural resources.
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