With this study, researchers from Südwind Institute (project lead) and Ecologic Institute inform the European Parliament about how the five emerging economies known collectively as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are emerging as development assistance donors and potential partners in the developing world. The authors discuss how South-South cooperation is becoming more significant and what challenges it poses to the EU's ODA agenda. Finally, the study provides a series of recommendations for European policy makers.

The objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship between the performance of the waste management systems in the EU Member States (MS) and their use of economic instruments (EI). On the basis of this analysis, the opportunity to move towards a European common approach for the use of EIs in relation to waste management is explored. The results show that landfill charges and product responsibility schemes are implemented in most MS. Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) systems have only been introduced in half of the MS.

Werner, Beate; Robert Collins et. al. 2012: Towards efficient use of water resources in Europe. EEA Report | No 1/2012, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.

In this paper, researchers from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Ecologic Institute propose that a more decentralized governance structure is one possible solution for dealing with complex problems. The authors argue that highly complex problems, such as achieving sustainable development, are better solved by networks of diverse actors interacting and collaborating both inside and outside of government - what the authors call "governance networks". Such collaboration would make solutions more effective at the implementation stage. The report is available for download.

Binda Zane, Edoardo; R. Brückmann, D. Bauknecht, F. Jirouš, R. Piria, N. Trennepohl, J. Bracker, R, Frank and J. Herling (2012): Integration of electricity from renewables to the electricity grid and to the electricity market – RES-INTEGRATION. Öko-Institut & eclareon, Freiburg/Berlin.

In order to meet its renewable energy targets by 2020, the EU is likely to increase its demand for biomass, not only for biofuel crops but also for woody biomass. A significant portion of this biomass will likely come from developing countries, particularly those in West and Central Africa, as well as Latin American countries. This demand can have significant negative impacts in these developing regions, including environmental degradation and threats to food security. In this brief for the European Parliament, researchers at Ecologic Institute (Stefanie Wunder, Timo Kaphengst, Krista Timeus and Kristine Berzins) analyze some of those main impacts, focusing particularly on woody biomass. The study is available for download.

The Committee of the Regions is engaged in the monitoring of the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy from the perspective of regional development and cohesion. This short survey by the Committee of the Regions serves the collection of opinion and feedback regarding the Europe 2020 initiatives for social change and innovation in the regions and EU Member States. Ecologic Institute and RIMAS are analysing the results in a ten-page report. The report is available for download.

This research survey aimed to provide an expansive overview of past and current research related to the study of various contexts of individual behaviour. It assessed their relevance for the work of InContext, and helped situate the work of InContext in the broader research landscape for sustainable behavioural and social change.

In this second part of the published report, existing policies were shown to be partly insufficient for satisfying adaptation needs, and thus the inclusion of new measures into existing policies is required. Based on the review of existing measures suitable for climate change adaptation in key policies as well as interviews with key EC representatives, additional measures and adjustments to existing measures have been identified that are necessary to respond to the impacts of climate change. This includes consideration of possible support for "climate proofing". The report is available for download.

The EPI-Water project aims to understand how Economic Policy Instruments (EPIs) succeed or fail in directing water resources to uses that reflect social value and priorities. The project, which runs from January 2011 to December 2013, uses a multi-faceted Assessment Framework (AF) to make ex-post evaluations of existing EPIs that have been operating in Europe and abroad, and make ex-ante evaluations of potential EPIs that may be implemented within Europe. The Review of the Assessment Framework is available for download.

Information on the environmental characteristics of products, such as on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused during their production or their energy efficiency, are essential in order to allow consumers to make informed choices on which products to buy. This study investigated different design options for product-related environmental information addressed at consumers.

The EPI-Water project applies an evidence-based approach to the assessment of Economic Policy Instruments (EPIs) for water management. In this report, the 30 ex-post case study reviews undertaken in the work package 3 of the project are synthesized and cross-compared to extract a first set of common features and formulate hypotheses about the conditions under which EPIs contribute to policy options to achieve sustainable water management.

To date, developing countries have only participated in the carbon market as suppliers of offsets: through projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they generate credits that are then sold to industrialised countries that have not acieved their mitigation targets. Since climate change is becoming an ever more pressing problem, however, mitigation in developing countries will need to go beyond offsets. At the same time, developing countries need to meet their responsibilities for the social welfare of their growing populations; scaled-up mitigation efforts will hence require time, capacity building, and large-scale investment. The so-called "Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions" (NAMAs) have been discussed as a way to enhance mitigation efforts in developing countries while taking into account their national circumstances and development priorities.

The European Union (EU) wants to increase the share of renewable energy in the transport sector to 10% by 2020. This 10% target was set in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, it currently focuses on the use of biofuels in transport and assumes a grid-average for electricity used in transport. No methodology is available for biomethane and hydrogen from renewable sources. The study "Shifting Renewable Energy in Transport into the Next Gear" was performed to determine whether there are conditions under which it is possible and beneficial to amend the RED to include new methodologies for renewable electricity, hydrogen and biomethane to count towards the 10% transport target. The final report is available for download.