In 2014, the European Union committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The Commission also proposes to aim for full greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050. On behalf of the BMU, Öko-Institute and Ecologic Institute are investigating how these goals can be achieved and what options are available to raise ambition of midterm goals and measures.

Ecologic Institute is working with Öko-Institut and Prof. Dr. Klinski on a project for the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA) relating to constitutional, European law and state aid issues for the development of the European Emission Trading Directive. Ecologic Institute's contribution focusses on the interactions of the ETS Directive and further EU legislative acts with a potential Federal Climate Change Act.

The EU has been going through a series of crises – from the Eurozone crisis and Brexit to controversies about the rule of law, democracy and migration. In response to Brexit, the EU has embarked on a process of reflection and possibly reform. As a contribution to this process, Ecologic Institute explores EU climate and energy policies as part of the block’s future. Two background papers are available for download.

Long-term climate strategies are an important instrument to help policy-makers and relevant stakeholders to establish a direction towards a climate-friendly future. The Paris Agreement asks all countries to establish such strategies – and EU Member States will soon be committed under EU law to produce them by 2020 at the latest. Not all EU countries have tried to establish plans that long into the future (up to 2050 and beyond) and the existing ones differ in scope and specificity. There is thus a need for exchange of the current experience and a sharing of best practice – including improving the understanding of the underlying modelling and scenario work. The Climate Recon 2050 project brings together policymakers from EU Member States, as well technical experts and climate modellers in two parallel fora to provide a space for exactly such a dialogue.

The EU has been going through a series of crises – from the Eurozone crisis and Brexit to controversy around migration, from external threats to the rise of Eurosceptic and nationalistic parties in some Member States. In response, the EU has embarked on an extensive process to reform itself. Against this backdrop, the Ecologic Institute organises workshops on EU reform and its links to climate and energy policies. Workshops take place in Tallinn, Sofia and Bucharest - in the context of the Estonian, Bulgarian and Romanian EU Presidency. A final conference in Berlin will conclude the project in spring 2019. The Ecologic Institute will present a study on the interlinkages between EU reform and climate and energy policy at the final conference.

The European Union has quite a number of directives and regulations on environmental matters. While all Member States are obliged to apply and/or transpose them, the degree to which these legal rules effectively help protect the environment depends to a large extent on their implementation in practice. In particular, proper environmental enforcement requires sufficient staff, with appropriate expertise and technical equipment, and good cooperation between different authorities. There is evidence that environmental law is not consistently enforced in Members States. Therefore, in 2018, the European Commission published an Action Plan on Environmental Compliance and Governance; it sets out various actions aimed at improving environmental compliance and governance in Member States. Ecologic Institute leads a consortium supporting the Directorate-General for Environment in implementing the Action Plan.

The Brexit, migration, the Euro crisis, continued economic malaise, and the rise of EU-sceptical parties and nationalist sentiment across Europe – the EU is clearly in turbulence. But how did it get there? What problems does the EU face, and do they amount to a crisis of the European Union? If the EU is in a crisis – what does it entail for EU climate and energy policy?

From the 26 until 30 September 2016, the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species" (CITES COP 17) took place in Johannesburg South Africa. Since CITES entered into force in 1975, such meetings are held every three years to review progress in the conservation of target species and consider adopting proposals to amend this list and improve Convention effectiveness. Given the recent accession of the European Union to CITES in April 2015 and the aims noted above, Ecologic Institute was commissioned by the European Parliament under an existing framework contract to prepare a briefing to the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). The briefing is available for download.

<p>The overall aim of this project is to support the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in the analysis of legislative reviews in the area of energy market with a focus on the most relevant  provisions for cities and local and regional authorities (LRAs). This analysis is carried out by CE Delft, ICLEI and Ecologic Institute.</p>&#13;&#13;

The overall aim of this project is to support the Committee of the Regions (CoR) by outlining the role cities and local and regional authorities (LRAs) can have in the planning, implementation and financing of more efficient district and renewable heating and cooling systems, usage of local heat, cold and fuel sources, insulation of buildings, the use of biomass in heating and cooling as well as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation.

This project, led by Ecologic Institute, aims to take stock of existing soil policy instruments in the EU in order to identify gaps in protection and to support the decision-making process for further policy action. Collaborating closely with experts from 28 EU Member States, the project develops a Wiki-based inventory and an up-to-date assessment of soil policy instruments in the EU. The inventory consists of existing and upcoming policy instruments, including legislation, regulatory and non-binding instruments, measures and targets in the EU Member States and its regions. In an ex-ante and ex-post impact analyses, the effectiveness of soil policy instruments in addressing the soil threats and soil functions in the EU as well as the relevance and coherence of policies is assessed.

Together with other institutes, Ecologic Institute has a framework contract with the European Parliament to support the work of its Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Under this framework contract, the European Parliament regularly requests studies and briefing papers on EU environmental policies and issues of sustainable development.

Wildlife crime is no longer an emerging issue, but has established itself as a serious threat to biodiversity and sustainable development. In the period between 2010 and 2012 alone, for example, 100,000 elephants were killed in Africa for ivory. The EU is both one of the most important markets for illegal wildlife products and an important actor in the fight against wildlife crime. As such, Ecologic Institute coordinated a study on wildlife crime which was commissioned by the European Parliament. Further project partners were the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), the University of South Wales (Jennifer Maher), Ragnild Sollund from the University of Oslo, Teresa Fajardo del Castillo from the University of Granada and Tanya Wyatt from Northumbria University.

Ecologic Institute continues to advise the German Federal Ministry for the Environment on the updating of EU climate and energy policy after 2020. In this project, Ecologic Institute developed options and formulation proposals for concrete legal texts and initiatives of European climate and energy policy - through a number of expert opinions, short studies, workshops and ad hoc support services.

The project supports the European Commission (EU) to coordinate and promote the implementation of European coastal and marine policies in the Member States. Issues with special focus are the analysis and development of integrated approaches and instruments for facilitating the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). In addition, the project assists the EU in organising sessions and workshops with competent expert groups and in improving the exchange of model examples via the database of OURCOAST.