The study provides a basic analysis of the practical implementation of the requirements of the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive in several EU Member States. It names the most important challenges encountered by the Member States in implementing the Directive, and refers to good practice examples in the implementation of the directive.

Article 4 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) permits exemptions if the necessary measures for achieving the environmental objectives of the Directive will have disproportionate costs. In this project, a set of criteria and a step-by-step procedure were developed to assess the disportionality of costs in a practicable and quick way. The main focus in this context was on the affordability of measures - when is it possible to conclude that the costs of the measures exceed the accepted party's ability to pay?

The European Union (EU) made a proposal to upgrade the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to a UN Environment Organization (UNEO). This book chapter by Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf and Markus Knigge places the proposal in the broader political debate, by summarizing the most relevant initiatives in the context of the ongoing UN reform process. The chapter discusses the main differences between UNEP and a potential UNEO and presents the arguments for and against the upgrade of UNEP to a UNEO.

Biomass constitutes an important but limited renewable energy source for the future. In this article, Timo Kaphengst discusses sustainability aspects of biomass use for bioenergy in the European context. The article is available for download.

Contingent valuation studies and their results are often criticised. This paper describes the findings of an experimental survey that tests the influence of survey design on strategic behaviour.

<p>&#13; A large percentage of Europe’s territory consists of rural areas that contain more than half of its population. Many problems of European societies such as an ageing population, high unemployment rates, social disparities and the lack of adaptive potential to the global market are more pronounced in rural areas than elsewhere. To overcome these problems, it is essential to link public, private and inter-sectoral initiatives to foster innovation. Rainer Müssner presented the EU-funded project RAPIDO, that has been established to analyse current best practices concerning the development of innovation in agriculture, forestry, the food sector and the wider rural areas, as well as to analyse methods to transfer knowledge to different target groups.</p>&#13;

<p>&#13; The question of "Governance" of natural resources, in other words how societies deal with the use of natural ressources, is central to each discussion about sustainability. Only "good governance" can guarantee the sustainable use of natural resources, protection of biodiversity, and indirectly help to implement the EU sustainability strategy. However it is quite difficult to measure and evaluate the level of good (bad) governance and to make the somewhat abstract concept more tangible. Rainer Müssner presented two EU funded projects dealing with the issue of "Governance of natural resources", in which Ecologic is involved as co-ordinator or partner.</p>&#13;

The second transnational conference of the WaterCost project as part of the Intereg North Sea Region focused on the issue of cost-effectiveness analysis and how it to apply it to groundwater and water supply issues. Benjamin Görlach gave a presentation on the role of cost- benefit considerations in the implementation process of the Water Framework Directive. He concluded that since there is only patchy data on costs and benefits, and elaborated on the role of the AquaMoney project in addressing this gap.

The EU Water Framework Directive and ist Groundwater Daughter Directive call for a cost-effective protection of all water resources. For groundwater, the assessment of cost-effective protection measures is complicated by the long time lags and the flow dynamics within aquifers. Together with the water supply company OOWV and the Lower Saxony Board of Agriculture, Ecologic has analysed the cost-effectiveness of groundwater protection measures in a drinking water protection area, and thereby developed a practical solution for dealing with the specific problems of cost-effectiveness analyses related to groundwater.

<p>&#13; The concept of disproportionate cost is one of the key economic elements of the EC Water Framework Directive. The practical implementation of this concept by the Member States offers a range of possible interpretations that are more or less in line with environmental economic theory. In a contribution to the envecon 2007 Applied Environmental Economics conference in London, Benjamin Görlach and Britta Pielen provided an introduction to the concept, its role in the Water Framework Directive, and provided an overview of the current discussion in some EU Member States.</p>&#13;

<p> Benjamin G&ouml;rlach presented some preliminary results of the WaterCost Project, which has been set up to develop and test a practicable methodology for cost-effectiveness analysis of groundwater protection measues. WaterCost brings together partners from five European regions, including municipalities, water supply companies and environment agencies. Ecologic Institute supports the German partners in the WaterCost project in the application of a cost-effectiveness analysis in a Frisian groundwater protection area. In his presentation, Benjamin G&ouml;rlach surveyed the costs and the effectiveness of 10 possible measures to reduce nitrate pollution from agricultural sources in the groundwater catchment area, and discussed potential combinations of these measures.</p>

The EU-U.S. Summit on 30 April 2007 passed a statement on energy security, efficiency, and climate change that is strong on rhetoric but weak on substance. Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Director of the Europe program at the Nature Conservancy and Senior Policy Advisor to Ecologic Institute, provides some critical commentary on the substance of the summit.