<p>&#13; Tanja Srebotnjak represented Ecologic Institute at the largest gathering of statisticians and practitioners of statistics in North America, the Joint Statistical Meetings, which this year took place in the Olympic City of Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Srebotnjak presented a paper on small area estimation of local health effects and risk factors illustrating her modeling and validation framework for the prevalent lack of health care insurance in the US.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; The 7th Greifswald International Summer Academy "Energy and the Environment" was put on by the University of Greifswald. Dominic Marcellino, Fellow at Ecologic Institute in Washington, spoke to the participants, delivering remarks on some of the ethical implications of expanded renewable energy production, specifically wind.</p>&#13;

Environmental policy-makers and stakeholders from the non-governmental, academic and private sectors convened in The Hague, The Netherlands from 26 July to 6 August 2010 as part of the second ICAP Summer School for Emerging and Developing Countries. The intensive two-week training event, designed and organised by the Ecologic Institute on behalf of and in collaboration with the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), provided insights into the complexities of emissions trading systems to enable participants' countries to harmonise their environmental policies for full participation in a future global carbon market.

The climate summit 2010 in Cancún has mostly been considered a success. The revival of multilateralism has been prized as the most important outcome. However, it remains that the most difficult decisions, were postponed in Cancún. Michael Mehling of Ecologic Institute outlines the importance of the results for transatlantic relations. The article is available for download.

This year, Ecologic Institute turns 15. Since its founding, Ecologic Institute has built a reputation for excellence in transdisciplinary and policy-relevant research. As an environmental think tank, Ecologic Institute uses its extensive project experience and network of partners on both sides of the Atlantic to address a broad range of environmental challenges.

In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama declared the need for "serious investments in clean energy" because "the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy". In a new paper funded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States under the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative, authors from the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC and Berlin identify investment needs and policy incentives required to achieve this transition to a clean energy economy.

A new publication in the journal "Ecological Indicators" by Tanja Srebotnjak, from Ecologic Institute, and Peter Hardi, from the Central European University in Hungary, examines the potentials for sustainable bioenergy production in Bulgaria, Romania and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. The study draws on official statistics and modeling results and concludes that bioenergy potentials are highest in Bulgaria, Romania, and Kazakhstan but depend on several factors including crop choice, climatic conditions, availability of suitable land, and the institutional and legal infrastructure.

"Latin America and the Caribbean; A Biodiversity Superpower" is an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Marlon Flores, Senior Policy Advisor at Ecologic Institute, contributed the chapter on "Protected Areas" to the initiative's report "Importance of Biodiversity and Ecosystems in Economic Growth and Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Economic Valuation of Ecosystems".

<p>&#13; The Political Science Department of the United States Naval Academy offers a course to 3rd and 4th year Political Science majors on Energy and Security. Dominic Marcellino, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, was invited to provide a guest lecture on the use of market mechanisms in climate change policy.</p>&#13;

<p> Culminating the celebration of two years in Washington DC, Ecologic Institute held a policy development workshop with Worldwatch Institute entitled &quot;Sustaining Energy Efficiency Investments in Challenging Financial Environments.&quot; The workshop gathered energy efficiency policy experts from NGOs, research organizations, and federal and local government.</p>

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) should remain in place beyond 2012 and be improved to facilitate more meaningful participation by developing countries in climate mitigation efforts. This is the conclusion reached in an article written by, inter alia, Michael Mehling, President of Ecologic Institute Washington.

<p> Ecologic Institute was invited to participate in a conference on &quot;Climate Change Policy: Lessons from the European Experience&quot; hosted on 25 and 26 March 2010 by the Center for European Studies at Rutgers University as part of &quot;Lessons from Europe&quot;, a two-year program of events exploring what US policy-makers and citizens can learn from the experiences of European democracies in addressing 21st century policy challenges.</p>