Several recent regional trade agreements (RTAs) include provisions on clean energy and on climate action. They may take the form of concrete commitments of reductions of tariffs or non-tariff barriers, or of commitments on institutional collaboration. Many RTAs also contain institutional provisions which are also of relevance to the implementation of existing environmental, including climate-related, commitments. As such, they constitute important opportunities for trade policy to contribute concretely and positively to a scale-up of clean energy and foster climate action.

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. The Ecologic Institute designed and developed the project's website. It contains an interactive map, which gives an overview of all funded projects. Furthermore the webpage provides detailed information on the projects and related events as well as publications for download. User can also directly subscribe for the newsletter.

In October 2015, DEMEAU, a three-year EU-funded FP7 project, made headlines in the release of the German American Water Technology (GAWT) Magazine. The cover of the latest edition of the magazine features the article entitled "New Approaches & Technologies for Tackling Emerging Pollutants in Drinking & Wastewater." The article authored by Ecologic Institute's Ulf Stein, Evelyn Lukat, and Anna Bee Szendrenyi sheds light on key findings from the DEMEAU project, which recently concluded in August 2015. The article is available for download.

Members of the research team of the European water research project DESSIN, a four-year EU-funded FP7 project, published an article in the GAWT Magazine. Authored by Gerardo Anzaldua, Sarah Beyer and Manuel Lago from Ecologic Institute, Nadine Vanessa Gerner and Issa Nafo from the Emschergenossenschaft and Sebastian Birk from the University of Duisburg-Essen, the article provides insights on key findings and presents the evaluation framework developed during the project.

The Rostock Energy Alliance (Energiebündnis Rostock) was founded in April 2011 by the City of Rostock and nine other municipal stakeholders from sectors such as public transport, housing and waste and water management. Their united goal is a locally based energy supply fully sourced from renewables. While CO2 emissions should be reduced, quality of life should not. The Alliance meets face-to-face biannually to exchange knowledge and experience, as well as to seek synergies for various constituent activities. The Alliance aims to reduce the annual CO2 emission per person to 2.5t or less by 2030. Compared to 2010, this is equal to a 2% reduction per year. To date (2015), the Energy Alliance supported the city in the creation of an energy transition concept and the current implementation of associated measures, in addition to the foundation of an energy cooperative.

This report aims at investigating the participation process in climate change adaptation for 22 European BASE case studies. A description of participatory methods and a further analysis of 9 BASE case studies where there has been a deliberative adaptation process present are given. Based on the results presented, a set of recommendations to policy-makers and practitioners are given. The output from D5.3 will lead up to D5.5, in which a more detailed analytical description of the framework will be given and a meta-analysis of the empirical contents will be delivered.

By linking different ETS, regulators create interdependence: decisions taken in one system have effects on the linked systems. Since ETS are evolving over time, there is a need for joint governance structures, to ensure compatibility of the linked systems, to avoid unwanted inferences, and to prepare for eventual disputes. In this report for the German Emissions Trading Authority, Benjamin Görlach, Michael Mehling and Ennid Roberts have looked into possible solutions for these challenges. The report is available for download.

On 30 September 2015, the conference "SmartSOIL: sustainable soil management aimed at reducing threats to soils under climate change" took place in Brussels. The conference concluded the 4-year research project SmartSOIL funded by the 7th Framework Programme.

A group of 10 leading journalists came to Germany from 27 September to 3 October 2015 in order to explore and discuss German climate and energy policy. Participants were able to speak with representatives from ministries, parliament, think tanks and businesses in Berlin, Freiburg and Stuttgart.

The first study tour of the 2015-2016 ELEEP Fellowship Class took place from 21 until 25 September 2015. On the study tour 15 ELEEP members visited Denmark and Germany to explore both opportunities and challenges of the European Energy Transition.

On 21 September 2015, Dr. Eleftheria Kampa, Senior Fellow at Ecologic, gave a lecture on EU water and river basin management policy at the Potsdam Summer School on Facing Natural Hazards (14 - 23 September 2015). The presentation slides are available for download.

The second webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 from 16:00 until 17:00 CEST. The webinar featured a discussion on the topic: "Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030" feature guest speakers Anja Kollmuss (CAN Europe) and Andrei Marcu (CEPS). The audio recording is available for download.

The second webinar in our POLIMP Webinar Series took place on Wednesday, 16 September 2015 from 16:00 until 17:00 CEST. The webinar featured a discussion on the topic: "Reform of the EU ETS: Making it fit for 2030" feature guest speakers Anja Kollmuss (CAN Europe) and Andrei Marcu (CEPS).

On 15 September 2015, Dr. Ana Frelih-Larsen, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation at the workshop "Agriculture and LULUCF in 2030 EU Climate and Energy Framework: State of the art and best practice for climate action in the agriculture and forestry sectors". The presentation slides are available for download.

Marius Hasenheit, Junior Researcher at Ecologic Institute, wrote an article about the interactive search engine "measuring-progress.eu" for Green Economy Indictors for the online magazine RESET. To draw interest of people who are not often dealing with Green Economy Indicators, on this topic, he described the project in a vivid and way. In this context he depicted the relevance of indicators in most of the fields of environmental policy and furthermore invited the readers to try out the tool and provide feedback.