In this article published in Conservation Letters, members of the interdisciplinary Research Group on Ecosystem Services examine the possibilities and perspectives for a reorientation of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The authors find that the current reform proposals do not take into account the knowledge generated by ecosystem research. They argue that the CAP should be reformed such that it serves as an instrument to safeguard ecosystem services from agricultural land.

This case study on green hydropower, conducted by Ecologic Institute, illustrates a novel application of economic policy instruments in European water management. Hydropower in Switzerland accounts for about 59 % of the electricity supply. While hydropower is already considered a green energy, the sector's "green" potential has increased with the introduction of a new label certification scheme. The study is available for download.

An European study shows that the rebound effect repeal energy and resource savings between 10 and 30 percent. Therefore, the adverse effect should already taken into account when designing policy instruments to improve efficiency. If the measures are combined skillfully, the rebound effect can be decreased. The results of the project conducted by BIO Intelligence Service, GVSS, and Ecologic Institute are summarized in the journal articel. The article is available for download.

The 2011 Eurostat monitoring report reviews the progress and implementation of the EU sustainable development strategy. The 2011 monitoring report was published on the Eurostat website. As partner in a consortium with the Vienna University of Economic and Business (RIMAS), INFRAS, and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the Ecologic Institute played a substantial role in drafting the monitoring report on behalf of Eurostat.

"Helios to the Rescue" – This is what Sascha Müller-Kraenner and Martin Kremer recommend to the economically weak Greeks in their "Internationale Politik" online article of the same title. What makes Greece so especially capable of producing renewable energy and what is preventing progress in this direction? Müller-Kraenner, Advisor of Ecologic Institute, and Kremer, Senior Fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, analyze these issues and caution against passing up timely opportunities for investment and growth.

"Nobody wanted anything from Europe, nobody needed to negotiate with Europe." This is how Sascha Müller-Kraenner summarizes the role of the European Union at the Copenhagen climate summit. In his article "After Copenhagen – A new start for Europe’s climate diplomacy," published in "Jahrbuch Ökologie 2011," Ecologic Institute's advisor and co-founder analyzes the new distribution of power at international climate negotiations.

EU researchers across an array of projects have produced valuable findings on change, adaptation and development strategies for European mountain regions in recent years. Yet, they often lack resources and experience for disseminating their results to practitioners. This collaborative webplatform, created by Ecologic Institute as part of the mountain.TRIP project, provides scientists with an expandable and user-friendly database of knowledge on communicating research results to practitioners.

Recent years have seen the climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change fail to achieve a major breakthrough on climate change mitigation, and no such breakthrough is expected in the near future. In a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Dr. Camilla Bausch and Michael Mehling evaluate various venues and institutions addressing the climate challenge, and assess their influence on the future of global mitigation efforts. The study is available for download.

This article published in Internationale Politik, Germany's leading foreign policy journal, explores the impact of Germany's phase-out of nuclear power on EU policies. Sascha Müller-Kraenner, a founder and policy advisor of Ecologic Institute, invites Germans to consider the impact of this policy on other EU Member States and sketches challenges for EU energy and climate policy. The article is available online.

Ecologic Institute is a private not-for-profit think tank for applied environmental research, policy analysis and consultancy. Sound complicated? It is! What do we work on? For whom do we work and who are we? What makes Ecologic Institute a "Knowledge Garden"? This film provides answers to these questions.

After two years of project work, the second annual report of RADOST (Regional adaption measures for the German Baltic Sea Coast) presents research results and experiences of cooperation with political decision makers in ministries, administrations and communities. The annual report is available for download.

Dominic Marcellino, Fellow Ecologic Institute Washington, and Max Grünig, Fellow Ecologic Institute Berlin, published an article on cost recovery in line with the EU Water Framework Directive and related experiences in Germany. The text appeared in the March/April special edition of L’Acqua, an Italian journal for water issues. The paper builds off previous work done for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The National Renewable Energy Action Plans offer a unique insight into the energy policy context of each EU Member State. For a comparative analysis of six European action plans, Katharina Umpfenbach and Stephan Sina contributed a review of Germany's action plan.

Longer and warmer summers on the German Baltic Sea coast: this is a possible implication of climate change that could certainly also serve as an opportunity for the tourism sector. At the same time however, negative impacts such as increased algae growth are also expected. Communities and stakeholders in the coastal region will have to adapt to these impacts in the near future. In the first RADOST annual report, the RADOST project partners present both impacts and possible adaptation strategies in the fields of coastal protection, tourism, water management and agriculture, ports and marine economy, renewable energy and conservation and land use.