This report is complementary to the third edition of the State of Nature report, which describes the state of nature in the EU based on reports from Member States under the Birds (2009/147/EC) and the Habitats (92/43/EEC) Directives for the period 2013-2018. It details the methodologies applied in the current State of Nature report, complementing the reporting guidelines for the Member States.

To meet its increasingly stringent emissions reduction targets, the European Union plans to extend the use of emissions trading, to also cover emissions from road transport and buildings. To understand the effects of this move, DG CLIMA commissioned a comprehensive analysis to investigate the economic, social, environmental, and regulatory / administrative implications. Together with partners ICF, eclareon, Enerdata, Fraunhofer Institut, Cambridge Econometrics, CITEPA, and Milieu, the Ecologic Institute investigated the general options for either the extension of the existing EU ETS or the introduction of a stand-alone scheme.

This paper examines the role that the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can play in the transformation towards more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems in the EU.

Achieving the Paris Agreement Long-term temperature goal (PA LTTG) requires closing the 2030 ambition and action gap between emissions levels consistent with the Paris Agreement and emissions levels projected with current targets and policies. G20 countries have a crucial role to play in realising increased climate policy ambition, given their economic power and prosperity, as well as their influence on investments, technology deployment and financial flows. This briefing paper provides an overview of mitigation options that have been analysed in recent literature and that can contribute to closing the emissions gap in 2030. This provides the basis to identify key policy areas and promising options for intergovernmental cooperation between the G20 nations, as well as possibly other relevant actors.

In this publication for the German Federal Environment Agency, the project team (Oeko-Institut, Ecologic Institute, University of Mannheim and the Institute of Development Studies) formulates requirements for a sustainable bioeconomy from the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. They highlight that the policy goals behind specific implementation have a major impact on the sustainability of the bioeconomy. The positive potential can be unlocked primarily through goals such as ensuring global food security and reducing fossil fuels.

Sustainable use of natural resources in the long term requires not only the application and dissemination of resource-saving technologies and infrastructures, but also changes in individual and collective behaviour and social practices. Against this background, different methods were combined in the project "Trendradar Resource Policy" to identify and evaluate societal trends and resource policy measures. Using trend analysis, 20 socially relevant trends were identified and qualitatively described. These trends were then empirically reflected by eliciting perceptions, attitudes and interpretation patterns of the general population in a three-week Moderated Research Online Community (MROC). At the same time, policy measures were identified and qualitatively assessed in terms of relevance and possible barriers to implementation.

Int this report, Irina Herb and Christiane Gerstetter of Ecologic Institute, as well as Alexandru Matei (ICLEI), present insights on how nature-based solutions can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defined in the 2030 Agenda, and recommend several pathways for doing so.

This background paper provides an overview of existing and new laws and initiatives regarding plastics in Germany and the EU. Despite the multitude of approaches, guidelines and laws, regulatory gaps remain. The greatest need for action exists in the areas of strengthening recycling and use of recycled plastics as well as waste prevention. Waste prevention remains the unwanted child in the resource discourse, although it almost always represents the best option in terms of environmental policy.

The UNITED project report "Current Environmental Assessment and Status of the Pilots" provides a comprehensive overview of the current environmental assessments and status of various pilot projects. These projects included a variety of multi-use concepts in the marine environment, including the combination of offshore wind energy with shellfish and kelp cultivation, offshore wind and solar energy, shallow estuarine aquaculture and kelp cultivation, and tourism. The report looks at the environmental aspects of these pilot projects and assesses their environmental impacts, regulatory requirements and existing environmental assessment results and monitoring capacity.

In this publication, Doris Knoblauch (Ecologic Institute), Lorenzo Felicetti, and Ulf Stein (Ecologic Institute) shed light on the untapped potential of ICT solutions in water management across Berlin, Milan, Copenhagen, Paris and Sofia, the five cities analysed in the project digital-water.city. In the analysis, the cross-cutting nature of digital water governance, and thereby its multifunctionality in terms of policy goals became evident.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to secure healthy, resilient, biodiversity-rich ecosystems that deliver the range of services essential to the prosperity and well-being of citizens. Nature-based solutions (NBS) are central to achieving the objectives of this strategy. Sandra Naumann and McKenna Davis from the Ecologic Institute have published a report outlining the contribution of over 30 EU-funded research and innovation projects to EU biodiversity, climate and other policy objectives and sustainable transition processes.

For energy-intensive industries, the transformation towards a climate-neutral form of production is a particular challenge, not only because of their large carbon footprints, but also because they are embedded in value chains that are still predominantly fossil-based. However, they too are part of the effort to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and at the same time accelerate the transition by providing competitive clean technology solutions. This study explores how European energy-instensive industries can transition to a climate-neutral economy while maintaining, and ideally improving, its global competitiveness. It investigates different technology options, policy designs and financial instruments.

A new paper by Öko-Institute and Ecologic Institute contributes to the upcoming discussion on the EU climate target for 2030 and the accompanying review of central policy instruments and governance structure. The paper highlights interlinkages between relevant processes at the European level and those under the Paris Agreement. An overview diagram visualizes the current timeline of these processes and helps to identify critical moments and windows of opportunity in the next few years, for raising EU ambition. Another figure helps to understand the key levers of the target setting.

This research report by Ecologic Institute identifies ways in which Germany can improve international soil governance in the short, medium and long term. It begins with an inventory of existing international instruments and institutions relevant to soil governance at the international level. It assesses the actual and potential steering effects of international treaties such as the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the climate regime as well as regional agreements. It also analyses the activities of FAO, UNEP, IPBES and the activities of the IPCC.

This report prepared by Valerie Fogleman with assistance of Ecologic Institute examines and analyses financial security for liabilities under the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) in Member States in which it is voluntary and those in which it is mandatory (the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain). It focuses on insurance because the vast majority of Member States have not introduced mandatory financial security for ELD liabilities.