Using different scenarios of socio-economic and climate development, this study examines potential impacts of climate change on Germany's financial budget. Additionally, the authors include effects of demographic change and assess the scope for action of public authorities.

In the current political debate, justice seems equivalent with even income distribution. Other justice aspects appear absent: studies show that low-income groups suffer more from pollution than high-income groups. This includes noise, air pollution and lack of accessible green spaces. At the same time, higher-income groups consume more resources than the poor. Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf discusses in brief these issues in the MigrantInnenUmweltZeitschrift (MUZ), Issue 2.

The RADOST project aims at strengthening the adaptive capacity of the German Baltic Sea coastal region towards climate change by fostering the dialogue between science, industry, government and civil society. The Ecologic Institute coordinates this project and is responsible for the design, creation and maintenance of the project's website. In addition to providing information about the project, the website offers a newsletter, a forum and a press section. An extensive internal website area serves the networking of partners and the project management. It contains a document management system, photo galleries, decision-making tools and a joint calendar.

An unprecedented donation by media mogul Ted Turner in 1997 resulted in the creation of a non-profit charity devoted to helping the United Nations achieve its objectives. The evolution, key activities and figures of the U.N. Foundation are briefly described in this article by Michael Mehling.

With the plenary speech of the 3rd bioenergy forum Dr. Bernhard Dreher from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and Jessica Löhndorf, Fellow at Ecologic Institute introduce the European sustainability requirements for biofuels and vegetable oils, which were transposed into German legislation in 2009. Germany was the first member state to implement the sustainability certification in Europe. The authors explain their practical implementation in Germany.

Sina, Stephan; Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Ralph Czarnecki 2009: Ein Klimaschutzgesetz für Deutschland. Juristisches Kurzgutachten des Ecologic Instituts. Berlin.

This brief expert report analyses the extent to which the economic stimulus packages launched in 2009 have the potential to drive forward a fundamental and sustainable transformation of the economy or to create new "path dependencies", i.e. to encourage businesses to remain in traditional industries or production methods that have been identified as unsustainable. For these purposes, this study analyses the economic stimulus packages of Germany, Great Britain, South Korea and the USA and briefly presents the programmes of China and Japan. Only initial estimates can be made in the context of this study, assuming that every euro or dollar spent in a given area has a similar environmental impact.

In this book chapter, Sascha Müller-Kraenner raises whether we are facing an increasing number of conflicts on oil resources in the future. He argues that conflicts will not arise over the resource itself, but rather when climate change induces large flows of environmental refugees.

Does water provide occasions for conflicts or does water become the conflict material when social control mechanisms fail or are developed insufficiently or badly? Are water conflicts perhaps provoked to conceal this weakness? How does good Water Governance look and which positive effects can it bring? Nicole Kranz, R. Andreas Kraemer and Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute discuss these questions in a chapter of the Jahrbuch Ökologie 2010.

In this book chapter, the authors discuss linkages between the environmental crisis, in particular climate change, and the financial and economic crisis. They argue that both crises have at least one cause in common: patterns of production and consumption that are unsustainable from both an ecological and social point of view.

"Europe's Bid – What we can offer Barack Obama" is the theme of the first issues in 2009 of the journal "Internationale Politik", published by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).  R. Andreas Kraemer contributed a preview of the possibilities for future cooperation between the US and Europe in climate and energy policy for jointly meeting the transformational challenges ahead, and in the Arctic, where the future of international relations may well be decided.

Rural areas face a number of new challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and the increasing demand for biomass. This series of conferences and workshops with different themes and a wide range of actors investigated new strategies for innovation in rural areas, compliant with environmentally friendly economic activities:

Rural development policies and the promotion of innovation represent the basis for the successful development of rural areas. In this context, the assessment of innovative initiatives and projects alongside the analysis of the status quo and obstacles to innovations are crucial. In this article, Sandra Naumann (Ecologic) and Andreas Frangenberg (FNL), propose a set of indicators to qualitatively evaluate the sustainability and the success of innovation projects. In addition, this publication presents the results of a comprehensive review on innovations in rural regions.