Dr Ralph Bodle, Arne Riedel and Dr Stephan Sina from Ecologic Institute's Legal Team are among the authors of the comprehensive legal commentary on climate change law (BeckOK Klimarecht), which was published by C. H. Beck on their online platform in December 2024. The commentary is edited by Prof Ekkehard Hofmann and Dr Franziska Heß and is the first to cover climate-related laws and treaties at international, European and national level.

This report analyses the resilience of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and shows how global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine can affect its operation. In view of rising energy prices and economic uncertainties, it becomes clear that the EU ETS needs to improve its legal resilience to crisis situations. The report highlights necessary reforms to make emissions trading more resilient and effective in the future.

As an output of the international academic conference "Towards the Polish Climate Protection Act" on 7 September 2022 in Szczecin, Wolters Kluwer Poland has published an edited volume entitled "Współczesne Wyzwania Prawa Ochony Klimatu" (Contemporary challenges of climate law). Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, contributed an English language essay on the German Federal Climate Change Act. He describes the development and main features of the Act, as well as its revision based on the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on 24 March 2021. He also presents lessons learned and good practices, and addresses challenges.

This report assesses the implementation status and quality of a selection of 11 provisions from 4 EU laws in 6 EU countries (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland and Spain). These 4 EU laws are Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity (DIR), Regulation (EU) 2019/943 on the internal market for electricity (REG), Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable resources (RED) and Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 laying down a framework to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy (ACC).

To achieve the ambitious climate targets of the Federal Climate Change Act a rapid expansion of renewable energies, particularly wind and photovoltaics (PV), is crucial. In this context, achieving 215 GW of installed PV capacity by 2030 has become a specific target of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). This report deals with the central role that buildings play in meeting PV expansion targets, with the potential to cover up to 25% of EU electricity consumption through rooftop PV.

This draft report compiles seven legal discussion papers that were produced as part of a research project for the Federal Environment Ministry on modernising soil protection law. The discussion papers serve as a technical basis for preparing a draft bill and address the challenges identified by the BMUV in an evaluation (white paper of March 2022). The discussion papers elaborate several options and explain their pros and cons. They are intended to stimulate a broader technical discussion on soil protection law.

Our planet is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. And the problem across the EU is also severe, with more than 80% of habitats in the EU now in a bad or poor conservation status. To reverse this alarming trend, the European Commission has proposed the Nature Restoration Law, which aims to restore at least 20% of EU land and sea by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

The COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh was intended by the Egyptian presidency to be an implementation summit. The key outcome agreed was a financing mechanism with a fund specifically for damage and loss. Apart from that, the substantive outcomes of COP27 were mostly disappointing. This article by Dr. Ralph Bodle, Arne Riedel and Dr. Camilla Bausch provides an overview of selected outcomes, as well as insights into the process and the assessment by German civil society.

The Ecologic Institute undertook a comprehensive country study for Germany focusing on the integration of species protection rules, specifically within agricultural sectors, under the Birds and Habitats Directives. Engaging with over 20 national and regional experts, the study probed the implications of Article 12 and 13 of the Habitats Directive (HD) and Article 5 of the Birds Directive (BD), focusing on how thoroughly the regulations are transposed into national law, to reveal what efforts are being made to provide information about them to farmers and enforce them and to evaluate assessment and authorisation procedures.

Stephan Sina 2022: Stellungnahme zum Gesetzentwurf der Landesregierung für ein Hessisches Gesetz zur Förderung des Klimaschutzes und zur Anpassung an die Folgen des Klimawandels (Hessisches Klimagesetz - HKlimaG) – Drucks. 20/9276 –1. Berlin: Ecologic Institut.

Germany must reduce input of pollutants into water bodies, enable the development of near-natural water bodies, and restore and improve the continuity of water bodies to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in the future. The article highlights individual legal levers, especially in legal areas beyond water law, to tackle these tasks and to bring surface waters and groundwater to a good status, as required by the Directive, in the medium and long term.

Preparations are currently underway for negotiations on a global plastics treaty. The treaty is intended to respond to the increasing plastic pollution, especially of the oceans, which requires international cooperation along the value chain and thus binding rules at the international level. The timetable for the negotiations is extremely ambitious, with a draft to be available as early as the end of 2024. In her editorial, Heidi Stockhaus highlights the global dimension of the problem and points to the responsibility of Germany and the EU to help the negotiation process succeed.

This info film shows in seven minutes how to use the Clearingstelle EEG|KWKG's database. How to make a request, what types of procedures there are and how a procedure is carried out at the Clearingstelle EEG|KWKG. The film was produced by Ecologic Institute.

The Ecologic Institute undertook comprehensive country studies for Germany and Austria focusing on the integration of species protection rules, specifically within the forestry sector, under the Birds and Habitats Directives. The country profiles are focusing on how thoroughly the regulations are transposed into national law, to reveal what efforts are being made to provide information about them to foresters and enforce them and to evaluate assessment and authorization procedures.

This paper describes important findings from the project "Data Governance and Regulation for a Sustainable Berlin" and formulates – in addition to the application field-specific papers – overarching recommendations.

This final report assesses the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) provisions of the SUP-Directive with a view to its implementation in the Member States. The focus of this analysis lays on those aspects that represent novelties as compared to other EU legislation on EPR, and thus raise legal questions that have not been addressed before, especially regarding the cleaning up of litter from relevant SUP products.

The German Federal Constitutional Court's decision of March 2021 declared the Climate Change Act partially unconstitutional because it did not sufficiently protect fundamental rights. While the Court upheld the Act's objective of climate neutrality by 2050 and emission budgets until 2030, it held that the Climate Change Act violated fundamental rights for the time after 2030: The specific emissions budgets until 2030 entailed that strict measures would likely be required after 2030 in order to achieve climate neutrality. The Climate Change Act failed to sufficiently address in advance how this would affect individual freedoms. Dr. Ralph Bodle and Dr. Stephan Sina provide an overview of the main findings of the decision as well as the ensuing amendments to the Climate Change Act, which were passed within just a few months after the decision and are subject to new constitutional challenges.