The term "populism" is ubiquitous in political debate nowadays. But not only is the term meaningless - it poses a real problem for democracy and the political debate, writes Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in the IPG. The article is available online.

The EU Effort Sharing Regulation is of great importance for EU climate policy, but its revision hardly gets public attention. This is a problem. Without a public debate, important structural issues of EU climate policy could be set wrong. In the Tagesspiegel Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf makes proposals for a good outcome of the trialogue negotiations.

In her plans for 2023 addressed to the EU Parliament, President of the EU Commission von der Leyen did not mention the proposal for a Sustainable Food System legislative framework (SFSF). This created speculation about the timeframe of this key proposal, which has been put forward as a cornerstone of the EU Green Deal for the agri-food sector. This blogpost, co-signed by members of the Think Sustainable Europe network, underlines the importance of the SFSF to be proposed next year in order to drive a sustainable transition of the EU food system, given the urgency of such a transition.

The Commission's proposal on the certification of Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) could be a milestone of EU climate policy making. It can put the EU on the right track – with a watertight CDR definition, and a firewall between removals and reductions; or the wrong track – dubious low-impact carbon removal schemes that pretend to offset what cannot be offset. As the integrity of EU climate policy is at stake, the EU cannot afford to take the wrong turn, writes Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf in the EU Observer.

Is infinite economic growth possible in a world with finite natural resources? For many environmentalists the answer to this question is a clear no. But economists, such as Dr. Michael Jakob of Ecologic Institute, often disagree, emphasising that economic growth can occur as productivity increases, even as consumption of natural resources and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions decrease. His guest op-ed is available online.

Record high energy prices and inflation are putting social cohesion in Germany under stress. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses in the IPG Journal whether this will divide Germany or not. The article is available online.

Member State policies for CO2 removal lack basics – a big problem for society. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses possible solutions in the Tagesspiegel.

Germany must reduce input of pollutants into water bodies, enable the development of near-natural water bodies, and restore and improve the continuity of water bodies to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in the future. The article highlights individual legal levers, especially in legal areas beyond water law, to tackle these tasks and to bring surface waters and groundwater to a good status, as required by the Directive, in the medium and long term.

Despite the widely recognised need to quickly move away from fossil fuels, particularly coal, many countries continue to invest in this highly polluting source of energy. Despite highly country-specific contexts, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Michael Jakob and Prof Dr. Jan C. Steckel (MCC/BTU) found that countries can be grouped into four broad clusters: those that have already announced coal phaseouts; those where coal use is in the process of being phased in; established users of the fuel; and major coal exporters. This guest post briefly presents the key findings of the recently published book, "The Political Economy of Coal".

Preparations are currently underway for negotiations on a global plastics treaty. The treaty is intended to respond to the increasing plastic pollution, especially of the oceans, which requires international cooperation along the value chain and thus binding rules at the international level. The timetable for the negotiations is extremely ambitious, with a draft to be available as early as the end of 2024. In her editorial, Heidi Stockhaus highlights the global dimension of the problem and points to the responsibility of Germany and the EU to help the negotiation process succeed.

In this paper, the authors review recent EU-supported research, policy, and practices to identify critical dimensions that still need to be addressed for greater uptake of NBS. While recognising the multiple societal challenges NBS can target, the authors build on the key messages from the '5th European Climate Change Adaptation conference ECCA 2021' and focus their analysis on NBS for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

This article explores approaches applied by transregional organisations and cooperation programmes that constitute the governance system in the European Arctic. Specifically, it scrutinises governing interactions developed by the Barents Regional Council and the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme to overcome the normative trap of the Arctic development paradox. The article answers two questions: First, how do the transregional actors approach the Arctic development paradox in their cooperation strategies and programmes, and to what extent do these approaches differ? Second, what kind of recommendations do they provide to overcome the Arctic development paradox?

Citizen assemblies are in high demand – also in the EU. The European Commission wants citizen assemblies to draft future recommendations for key EU legislative projects. The European Parliament is pushing in the same direction. It seems likely that citizen assemblies will become an integral part of the EU decision-making. Dr. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf asks if this is a good idea and what lessons can be learned from the EU Citizen Assemblies?

Social concerns around introducing a carbon price for transport and heating fuels (ETS2) are legitimate. But the EU Parliament overshot the mark in its aspiration to cushion households, which becomes apparent in its request for changes to the Social Climate Fund (SCF), write Michael Pahle, Nils aus dem Moore and Benjamin Görlach in their article for EURACTIV.

Not democratically elected, but popular: Citizen councils can strengthen public participation in the EU, but they must not be overrated. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses in the IPG Journal how citizen councils can be involved in EU decision-making in the future.