On 9 June 2015, the results of the project "Strategic Development of the National Climate Initiative (NKI)" were discussed at the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) in Berlin. The half-day conference focused on the presentation of the results of the development of the National Climate Initiative as well as on the exchange and networking of high-ranking stakeholders from policy, business, scientific institutions, and civil society.

From 1 June to 11 June 2015, the meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies for the UN climate negotiations in the lead up to COP21 took place in Bonn (Germany). Members of the CECILIA2050 consortium hosted a side event entitled "Improving Europe's Climate Policy Toolbox to Reach the 2050 Low-Carbon Targets: Insights from the CECILIA2050 Project."

Multiple international environmental agreements govern countries' treatment and protection of their natural resources and environment. The treaties have different requirements for the Parties to report on the implementation, e.g., regulations, policies, strategies, etc. However, to date there has been no comprehensive assessment regarding implementation of these agreements on the national level. The Global Environmental Governance Project, spearheaded by Prof. Dr. Maria Ivanova, Associate Professor of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston, aims to fill this knowledge gap.

On 6 June 2015 around 30 representatives and citizens of the municipality of Ahrensfelde joined the Workshop on the Future of Ahrensfelde. The municipality on the periphery of Berlin successfully participated in the "City of the Future" contest funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and is one of 52 German cities that will build a vision of its future this year. The Ecologic Institute and the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde are supporting the vision building process and a potentially following reality lab. Doris Knoblauch moderated the kick-off workshop.

R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute, begins an 18-month fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany, during which he will work on a research project on "Thinktanking in Theory and Practice". Among other things, he investigates internal management and professional development in this sector, as well as transdisciplinary methods like those used by the IASS and other institutes. The results of this research will feed into different activities and publications.

Through which global political approaches can a (more) sustainable land use be reached? Over the last four years, the GLOBALANDS project team has attempted to answer this primary research question. On 19 May 2015, the final conference of the project took place at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the project results related to global governance of urban-rural relations. All presentations are available on the GLOBALANDS website.

As part of its long-standing cooperation with Duke University, the Ecologic Institute implemented a course on Germany's energy transition (Energiewende), offered to Duke students as part of the Duke in Berlin Summer Program.

Policy makers and environmental groups worldwide are scrambling to prepare for the adoption of a new international climate agreement at the Paris 2015 climate summit in December. However, the very specific language of the UN negotiations and the technical complexity of climate science are not readily understood by the average citizen. The nine-day training course, organized by Ecologic Institute, will include instructive training workshops on a diverse array of topics such as: "The Science of Climate Change" and "UNFCCC: How does a COP work?" All courses are designed to meet the professional needs of journalists and led by a team of experts in climate science and policy.

Ecologic Institute, in cooperation with the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), organized and hosted an intensive three-day training course for PhD students from 27 to 29 April 2015 in Dessau and Berlin (Germany), entitled "Policy and Regulation of Pollutants in the Environment". The training was part of the CAPACITIE project, one of the prestigious Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITNs) funded by the European Commission, which focuses on pollution in urban environments. The presenters held talks focusing on local (city level), national, and EU-level efforts addressing environmental pollution and covered regulatory approaches, methodological tools and practical initiatives. The presentations are available for download.

The first Trade Night, held at Ecologic Institute, focused on the environment-related provisions of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a bilateral trade and investment agreement negotiated between Canada and the EU. Trade Nights are a regular series of events convened by Ecologic Institute that provide a forum for the trade community in Berlin to discuss current trade policy issues in an informal setting.

The compatibility of national measures to support renewable energy schemes with international trade and investment law was the topic of a presentation by Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow, Ecologic Legal. The presentation was part of the Annual Conference on European Environmental Law of the Academy of European Law at Trier (Germany). The presentation slides are available for download.

The first expert workshop of the discussion series "Improving climate protection – for Paris and beyond" dealt with the topic "Paris 2015 – Signals for non-state actors?" The event took place on 15 April 2015 in Berlin.

On 10 April 2015, Christiane Gerstetter, Senior Fellow in Ecologic Institute's legal team, gave a presentation on the relationship between international trade and environmental agreements at a conference of the Protestant Academy Hofgeismar. The conference centered on the topic: "Natural enemies – Environmental protection and free global trade as a legal and political problem." The presentation slides are available for download.

Where do Canada and Germany stand in the field of renewable energies and energy efficiency? Which initiatives and projects are leading the way? Who is driving development – and how can Canada profit from Germany’s experiences? These and other questions framed the Canadian-German Study Tour that took place from 22 to 28 March 2015 in Berlin and Hamburg, focusing on the theme "Energy Transition in Germany". The study tour had space for 11 high-level participants with professional backgrounds in policy, science, business and NGO works.

A part of the work for the research project "European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime" (EFFACE) is the publication of Policy Briefs. These Briefs highlight EFFACE core results and their policy implications and give recommendations for a coordinated EU approach to reduce the broad impacts of crimes against the environment. The Policy Briefs are available for download.