This FAQ note presents the links between the Birds and Habitats Directives and the Nitrates Directive. The FAQ note specifies the legislations’ objectives, highlight the interactions between both areas of legislation, and points to the opportunities for greater coordination between the directives. This note by Ecologic Institute is available for download.

As part of the 'Sustainability 2030 Science Platform', Ecologic Institute has published a study on oceans as a global commons. An overview of the different governance mechanisms in regard to the Global Commons "Oceans" area are discussed. The study is available for download and will be presented at the beginning of December at the Annual Conference 2019 of the Science Platform.

This report analyses two specific activities within the REFRESH project: First, the dissemination of the Framework for Action ("Blueprint") that helps national governments to build Voluntary Agreements with the relevant stakeholders in the sector to reduce food loss and waste and second, work with Standardisation Bodies, specifically barcode standards used by retailers.

This report provides a detailed overview of REFRESH's activities as well as an assessment of their outreach and impact. It also reflects on the lessons learned of REFRESH's communication activities, including barriers and success formats.

This report by Ecologic Institute explores the extent to which current policy frameworks support sustainable urban development and nature-based solutions (NBS). It reveals that a variety of different terms are used across countries in policies and discourses in support of sustainable urban development, with green (and blue) infrastructure being the most frequently used. However, while many policies were shown to have strong explicit support for sustainable urban development, these often lack mandatory policy instruments.

This working paper identifies the main overarching trends affecting the food supply system, sets out the environmental and socio-economic implications of spatial decoupling of food production, consumption and disposal, and addresses the particular role of urbanisation in changing supply systems. The effects in industrialised and developing countries are considered in equal measure.

Since 2012, more than 200 experts from various fields of water management and nature conservation, the federal states and the federal government, the federal waterway administration, the energy industry, hydraulic engineering, fisheries biology, nature conservation, fishing and fishing associations and university science have been involved in the German Participatory Forum on Fish Protection and Downstream Migration. In the second cycle of the Forum, from 2015 to 2018, the productive dialogue was continued and a better understanding or various aspects of fish protection and downstream fish migration was compiled. This report documents the project work of the 2nd cycle and is available for download.

A rare consensus has emerged in Australia's otherwise highly polarized energy policy: The development of a hydrogen export industry represents an overlap of interests between more progressive and more conservative groups. This report, co-authored by Raffaele Piria, provides a comprehensive overview of the hydrogen debate in Australia.

The report first presents non-institutional factors that influence the relationship between urban and rural areas. In the second part, it provides an overview of institutional framework conditions and instruments for the design of sustainable urban-rural linkages. The third section of the report analyses existing instruments and policies for the sustainable design of urban-rural linkages. It covers instruments at the German, EU and international levels. Examples of good practice from European and non-European countries in the field of "regional food systems" have a complementary, illustrative function.

Magosch, Magdalena, Raffaele Piria, Jakob Eckardt 2019: Überblick über die australische Energiepolitik. Berlin: adelphi/RAP.

This research report examines the concrete goals of bioeconomy policies, which actors are involved, which positions these actors take, which arguments for and against bioeconomy strategies are used, and which ethical implications the promotion of the bioeconomy could have.

As hydromorphological aspects between the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Floods Directive refer to the same fluvial processes, the issue of hydromorphology and flooding has been addressed several times within the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) process. In this context, a workshop on hydromorphological measures under the Floods and Water Framework Directives – "Finding synergies and addressing challenges" took place on 4-5 December 2018, in Budapest (Hungary). After the workshop, this background paper was updated to include conclusions from the meeting. The background paper is available online.

This brochure is a 'light' version of Eurostat's publication 'Sustainable development in the European Union – 2019 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context', conveying its main messages in a visual and concise way. The brochure provides an updated snapshot of the current situation concerning 100 indicators related to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). It thus provides a snapshot of the key trends related to sustainable development in the European Union. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.

In a study for DG FISMA, Ecologic Institute and its partners supported the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance in the development of screening criteria for agriculture activities. The criteria are presented in the Technical Report on EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy. The report is available for download and the call for feedback is open until 13 September 2019. Following this consultation, the TEG will issue recommendations to support the development of future legislation on EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy.

The EU adopts essential climate issues – such as carbon taxation – by special legislative procedures. This means that the European Parliament is not an equal co-legislator and the Council decides by unanimous vote, providing each Member State with a veto. This is a problem because the urgency of climate action requires swift and bold EU action. EU climate action cannot afford a governance structure that allows one Member State to hold all others hostage in essential areas of climate action. A new Ecologic paper explores how to address this problem.