<p>On 30 June 2017, the Federal Environment Minister Dr. Barbara Hendricks kicked off the Dialogue Forum "Wirtschaft macht Klimaschutz" ("Business Mitigates Climate Protection"). More than 130 participants from companies from all economic sectors met to discuss the development of joint strategies and practical implementation measures for enabling climate protection. The Federal Environment Minister's speech, as well as presentations and photos from the conference are available online.</p>&#13;&#13;

<p>On 29 June 2017 Ecologic Institute, together with the multEE consortium and the Energy Community Secretariat, held their final conference at the Sofitel in Vienna. The event served as an interactive forum for exchange and joint learning. A lively participatory approach was adopted to summarize and review all of the project's achievements and impacts to date, while paving the way for future cooperation. The presentation slides are available for download.</p>&#13;

In 2050 nine billion people will live on Earth. Already now with only seven billion people to feed, the distribution of resources is unequal and the global food system is not sustainable. With the World Food Convention, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel organized an international high level event on 22 June 2017 in Berlin. 500 participants from policy, industry, diplomacy, NGOs as well as science and academia discussed the most pressing issues of global food production and distribution. The Ecologic Institute was a partner of the World Food Convention. Ecologic Institute's Senior Fellow Stephanie Wunder spoke in the panel "Human Eating Behaviour".

REFRESH Food Waste 2017 brought together diverse stakeholder groups from across Europe working on food waste.&#13;

<p>The conference was in line with the thematic approach of the Forum, but took also into account the need for professional development. The conference focused on presenting and discussing current research and development projects from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.</p>&#13;&#13;

<p>The aim of the conference is to present and discuss the results of the stakeholder engagement activities in BioSTEP and its value to the current policy discussions on the bioeconomy and the circular economy. BioSTEP has analysed in three policy workshops the participation processes that are necessary to build and strengthen the new value chains of the bioeconomy. The policy workshops discussed how bioeconomy strategies can be developed in a participatory way, ensuring that the change of economic value chains, necessary for a transition to a bioeconomy, is understood and supported by all stakeholders.</p>&#13;

<p>In the project "Scientific coordination of research projects on a sustainable economy" (Wissenschaftliche Koordination der Fördermaßnahme Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften, NaWiKo), Ecologic Institute and its partners coordinate 30 research projects, which deal with a more sustainable economy and are supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).</p>&#13;

<p>Engaging stakeholders in adaptation planning is widely considered to enhance the degree of acceptance and political relevance of environmental policy measures; yet significant room exists for improvement in the design and implementation of stakeholder participation in decision-making processes. A European Policy Event entitled "Implementing COP22 agreements: River basin adaptation planning through stakeholder engagement" was organized by Ecologic Institute within the EU-funded BeWater project to address this topic. The event's key messages and European policy recommendations are available for download.</p>

On 5 December 2016, World Soil Day, an EU Soil stakeholders' Conference took place in Brussels. The conference aimed at raising awareness about the importance of soils and the ecosystem services that they deliver, and to contribute to the implementation of the EU Soil Thematic Strategy. The proceedings are available for download.

The Federal Environment Agency was hosting the 3rd National Resources Forum with support of Ecologic Institute on 11 November 2016. The conference took place in the "Ludwig Erhard Haus" in Berlin. The aim of the National Resources Forum (NRF) is to provide a national platform for discussion of the issue of sustainable resource use by focusing on the political and scientific debate on this subject.

Ecologic Institute supported the Federal Environment Agency in organising the 3rd European Resources Forum from 9 until 10 November 2016. The conference took place in the "Ludwig Erhard Haus" in Berlin. The ERF addresses European decision-makers and experts from the fields of policy development, industry, academia, civil society and the media. Around 400 participants from over 32 countries participated in the conference.

Ecologic Institute supported the German Environment Agency in hosting the Conference "Decarbonization and Resource Efficiency – 100% Renewable Energy and more," which took place on 8 November 2016 at the "Ludwig Erhard Haus" in Berlin. The conference highlighted synergies and ways to minimize trade-offs between decarbonization and dematerialization policies.

The final conference of the project "Post-carbon cities of tomorrow" (POCACITO) led by Ecologic Institute, will take place on Friday, 21 October 2016 in Brussels. At the interactive conference we will present our experience in developing long-term strategies with stake-holders through visioning and backcasting workshops and other results of the project, such as a high level document or 'roadmap' to achieve livable post-carbon cities by 2050. Registration is now open!

Vivienne Parry welcomed approximately 1700 attendees from over 100 countries to the fourth edition of Adaptation Futures 2016, one of the largest conferences ever held on climate change adaptation. The Bottom-Up Climate Adaptation Strategies (BASE) project was selected to be featured as a best practice project at the conference. BASE partners, among them Ecologic Institute, presented the project's research and tools in two sessions.

After the success of the ECCA conference in 2015, the BASE project has been selected as a Best Practice project to be featured at the upcoming Adaptation Futures (AF 2016) Conference from10 until 13 May 2016, in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). BASE partners will present the project's research and tools in two sessions, several presentations and a variety of information material. Key adaptation tools developed within the projects will also be presented in the Tool Shed.