In this article published in Conservation Letters, members of the interdisciplinary Research Group on Ecosystem Services examine the possibilities and perspectives for a reorientation of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The authors find that the current reform proposals do not take into account the knowledge generated by ecosystem research. They argue that the CAP should be reformed such that it serves as an instrument to safeguard ecosystem services from agricultural land.

The economic valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services has become a widespread tool to inform policy-makers about the consequences of environmental change. Assessments of environmental impacts at large geographic scales have led to growing policy and academic interest in transferring ecosystem service values from existing valuation studies to other ecosystem sites at a large geographic scale. This paper, published in Environmental and Resource Economics, proposes a methodology for scaling up ecosystem service values to estimate the welfare effects of ecosystem change at this larger geographic scale.

This article, written by Ruta Landgrebe and Benjamin Boteler from Ecologic Institute in the theme issue of the German League for Nature, Animal Protection and Environment’s (DNR) newsletter, concerns environmentally harmful EU subsidies in the agricultural and fisheries sectors and argues for continued support for the "greening" of the EU budget, including the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies for the new seven-year funding period 2014-2020.

In a blog post on the US State Department's "Our Planet" blog, Dominic Marcellino, Fellow at Ecologic Institute US, relates the story of how the village of Ascha in Bavaria went from being completely energy dependent to producing over 100% of its electricity and 50% of its heating needs from renewable energy.

"Helios to the Rescue" – This is what Sascha Müller-Kraenner and Martin Kremer recommend to the economically weak Greeks in their "Internationale Politik" online article of the same title. What makes Greece so especially capable of producing renewable energy and what is preventing progress in this direction? Müller-Kraenner, Advisor of Ecologic Institute, and Kremer, Senior Fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, analyze these issues and caution against passing up timely opportunities for investment and growth.

An European study shows that the rebound effect repeal energy and resource savings between 10 and 30 percent. Therefore, the adverse effect should already taken into account when designing policy instruments to improve efficiency. If the measures are combined skillfully, the rebound effect can be decreased. The results of the project conducted by BIO Intelligence Service, GVSS, and Ecologic Institute are summarized in the journal articel. The article is available for download.

This article provides a stock-take of the state of the European Union's (EU) position heading into the climate change negotiations in Durban in late 2011. A long-time champion of an effective global system under the auspices of the UN, the EU finds itself in a difficult position as the future of the Kyoto Protocol is seen to being a stake at the summit in South Africa. With a number of other industrialised countries jumping ship and declaring their unwillingness to continue the Protocol in a Second Commitment Period, the EU is feeling ever more exposed and under pressure to declare for the continuation of Kyoto.

Technology transfer is an important part of ongoing efforts at climate change mitigation and adaptation, and a central issue in negotiations between developed and developing countries. In a German publication for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Christiane Gerstetter summarises the state of the debate prior to the Durban climate summit.

Over the last 40 years, Germany has retooled policies to promote more environmentally sustainable growth. Michael Mehling contributed to an article focusing on four case studies from Germany in the areas of energy, urban infrastructure, and transportation. The article identifies potential opportunities for policy transfer from Germany to the United States as well as barriers that may hinder such transfer.

This article published in Internationale Politik, Germany's leading foreign policy journal, explores the impact of Germany's phase-out of nuclear power on EU policies. Sascha Müller-Kraenner, a founder and policy advisor of Ecologic Institute, invites Germans to consider the impact of this policy on other EU Member States and sketches challenges for EU energy and climate policy. The article is available online.

Climate change, the finiteness of fossil fuels, national security, and job creation: there are many reasons to invest in renewable energy. In this article in the New York Times, Christoph H. Stefes, Senior Associate at Ecologic Institut, explains that investments in renewable energy are lacking due to the absence of a stable investment environment. The article is available online.

In this article, the authors provide for the first time a definition of the "Footprint Family" as a suite of indicators to track human pressure on our planet and under different angles. It builds on the premise that no single indicator per se is able to comprehensively monitor human impact on the environment, but indicators rather need to be used and interpreted jointly.

How can philanthropists make informed and responsible choices when investing the endowment of their foundation? How can they avoid destroying with their investments what they seek to protect with their grants? R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute makes concrete suggestions in his article in the summer 2011 Philanthropy Letter of the Fondation de Luxembourg.

As part of the EU's efforts to define its role in Arctic management and decision making, the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment funded the EU Arctic Footprint and Policy Assessment to determine its impact, responsibilities, and policy options to protect the Arctic. This article summarizes the key findings from the study, and presents an overview of the EU's Arctic footprint. The article is available for download.