In the article "Why do we decide to live with risk at the coast?" recently published in "Ocean and Coastal Management", Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute and Susana Costas and Prof. Oscar Ferreira of the University of Algarve explore risk perception in a community found in the vulnerable coastal region, Praia de Faro, on the southern coast of Portugal. The study addresses the identification of factors shaping risk perception and the reasons leading to settlement of high-risk coastal areas.

Prevailing resource use patterns of the global socio-industrial metabolism are unsustainable. For effective resource policies, drivers for such unsustainable resource use and their effects need to be better understood and mapped. In the context of the FP7 research project DYNAMIX, Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers and co-authors identified by means of meta-analysis a set of ten driver categories that affect unsustainable resource use.

Today, water and sanitation services are organized very differently in Britain and Germany, with privatization at a regional level in Britain and municipal companies in charge of several public services in Germany. In this article, written by Founder and Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute, R. Andreas Kraemer, and Bernard Barraqué, the history of water supply privatization and centralization in Great Britain and Germany is discussed.

Bray, Dennis and Grit Martinez 2014: "Climate-change lore and its implications for climate science: Post-science deliberations?". Futures, Vol. 66, No. February 2015, 54-69.

In times of conflicting environmental objectives, the bioeconomy has evolved as one of the most contested fields in resource and climate policies. This article by Timo Kaphengst and Stephanie Wunder stresses the overall scarcity of land as a significant obstacle for further expansion of biomass production for the bioeconomy. The authors argue for a more demand-driven strategy to alleviate stress on land ecosystems. The article is available for download.

Riedel, Arne and Dominic Marcellino 2013: "Emissions Trading in the US: Work in Progress on the Federal Level?". Carbon and Climate Law Review, Vol. 2013, No. 3, 213-215.

In this article, published in the journal Frankfurter Hefte, Christiane Gerstetter from Ecologic Instiute takes a stand on environmental aspects in the discussion on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is currently negotiated between the EU and the USA.

In this article, Ecologic Institute's Lena Donat and Ralph Bodle provide a structured approach for developing and evaluating options for a dynamic adjustment mechanism in the 2015 climate agreement. To ensure that the 2015 Agreement, that is currently being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), provides an effective response to climate change over time, it needs to encorporate flexible and dynamic elements. This should include a possibility for Parties to regularly adjust their mitigation commitments so as to increase the level of ambition and to reflect changing circumstances.

Smart homes offer significant potential to enable new energy saving services and capabilities offered via smart grids. However, research reveals that consumer perception regarding reliability and data privacy risks, as well as high costs of technologies act as significant barriers to consumer acceptance of smart homes. In a paper, published in Energy Research and Social Science, Benjamin Boteler and co-authors investigated the differences and similarities in technical and economic drivers and barriers to smart home market development in the UK, Germany, and Italy. The paper European smart home market development: Public views on technical and economic aspects across the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy is available for download.

Lui, Charles; Tanja Srebotnjak and Renee Yuen-Jan Hsia 2014: "California Emergency Department Closures are Associated with Increased Inpatient Mortality at Nearby Hospitals.". Health Affairs, Vol. 33, No. 8, 1323-1329.

Emissions trading promises the achievement of a pre-defined environmental outcome at least cost. If the system works and key assumptions hold, it would seem to be an "optimal" climate policy instrument. On closer inspection, however, it is less clear what constitutes an "optimal" climate policy. This paper argues that optimality involves a range of criteria beyond short-term economic efficiency, but also has to consider the longer-term dynamic efficiency, as well as the political, administrative and legal feasibility of policy instruments.

Hsia, Renee Yuen-Jan et al. 2014: "The Association of Trauma Center Closures with Increased Inpatient Mortality for Injured Patients". The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Vol. 76, No. 4, 1048-1053.

Cigarette smoking is a leading risk factor for morbidity and premature mortality in the United States, yet information about smoking prevalence and trends is not routinely available below the state level, impeding local-level action. Tanja Srebotnjak of Ecologic Institute and co-authors now publish county-level estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence: These provide a unique opportunity to assess where prevalence remains high and where progress has been slow. The estimates provide the data needed to better develop and implement strategies at a local and at a state level to further reduce the burden imposed by cigarette smoking.

Wang, Tiffany; Tanja Srebotnjak; Julia Brownell and Renee Y. Hsia 2014: "Emergency Department Charges for Asthma-Related Outpatient Visits by Insurance Status". Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 25, No. 1, 396-407.

Bieling, Claudia et al. 2014: "Kulturlandschaften entwickeln – Ökosystemleistungen stärken". Natur und Landschaft, Vol. 2014, No. 2, 82-84.