Dr. Ralph Bodle and his colleagues presented a report by Ecologic Institute on possible courses of action for German environmental policy with an emphasis on the Arctic in the context of the German government's Arctic Dialogue. The report offered a number of different possibilities of how Germany could work towards improving nature conservation in the Arctic.

During this 6th Biogas workshop Dr. Wolfgang Urban, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented the current state, objectives, and procedures on the way to the revised Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2.0). He described the challenges within the energy transition process and possible prospects of bioenergies. The presentation slides are available for download.

Arne Riedel, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, presented the institutional framework for the Arctic and its changes as well as the possible influence of Arctic Council observers. Taking the expansion of regional interests into account, the presentation also examined the role of Arctic Council observer states in the possible concept of an "Arctic Community." He outlined the possibilities for observer states to influence the policies of Arctic states within and outside of the Arctic Council and concluded such observer states have been (and will likely remain) demanding actors in Arctic governance. The presentation slides are available for download.

Dr. Wolfgang Urban, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, hold a presentation at the fourth expert dialogue "Gas Infrastructure for the Future", organized by the Technologiestiftung Berlin (TSB). He described the current state of the energy transition process in Germany – the so-called Energiewende - and explained the further steps of the German Federal Government. Additionally, he exemplified the challenges in the energy market namely flexibility options, wind and solar energy in the transformation process as well as the role of natural gas infrastructure and natural gas as energy source. The presentation is available for download.

As part of a VDI Conference dealing with demand-driven electricity generation from biogas and biomethane, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Wolfgang Urban gave a speech about the political expansion goals in the field of renewable energies and the prospect of biogas from the Federal Government's point of view. He especially presented the Energy Concept 2010 and related challenges, e.g. the demand for a flexible electricity supply. The presentation slides are available for download.

During the International VDI Conference-Biomethane 2013, major issues for the biogas and biomethane markets in technical, political and business areas, drawing on leading experiences from all over Europe, Russia and China were discussed. Dr. Wolfgang Urban, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, presented German political targets and utilization priorities for biomethane. Furthermore he spoke on the current legal framework and incentive scheme as well as the challenges and future perspectives and conclusions from amendment of legal framework. The presentation slides are available for download.