The global crisis of the oceans, which has been a tangible and palpable problem in other parts of the world for many years, is increasingly becoming an issue in this country as well. The natural and technical sciences, in particular, have contributed to raising societal awareness about the state of the world's oceans in large-scale research initiatives. Against the backdrop of the ongoing UN Decade of Oceans (2021-2030), an interdisciplinary marine "scoping workshop" took place in Hannover from 7 until 9 June 2023. Dr. Grit Martinez represented Ecologic Institute in this exchange and presented her experiences from interdisciplinary marine collaboration in the EU research project RISC-KIT.

Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, gave a presentation on environmental criminal law at the Transfer Talk on Environmental Crime at the Criminological Research Center (KKF). He gave an overview of statistical developments, structural peculiarities of environmental criminal law, challenges in prosecution and the ongoing amendment of the EU's Environmental Crime Directive.

At the Expert Hearing in the European Parliament on "Sustainable management of water and resources in agriculture" on 25 April 2023, Dr. Ulf Stein, Senior Fellow of Ecologic Institute and Coordinator of the Water Studies, was invited as one of four experts. The aim of the event was to speak on the relationship between agriculture and water management in the context of the increasing scarcity of water resources due to climate change. The talk aimed to explore best practices and policy options that can help manage agriculture's impact on water resources, as well as address challenges to agriculture due to weather events such as droughts and floods.

At the online conference, "Moore II: Restoring Intact Ecosystems and Sustainable Use – Pathways to Success," held on 25 April 2023, Gregory Fuchs presented a policy paper stressing the need for freshwater ecosystem restoration. The event, organized to support the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, specifically focused on peatland restoration.

On Thursday, 20 April 2023, INTERLACE hosted a Cities Talk Nature Talks webinar, aiming to strengthen cooperation, learning, and peer-to-peer interactions on the local, regional, and global scales. Natalia Burgos presented on governance instruments to mainstream nature-based solutions and shared best practices gathered in the Urban Governance Atlas.

A key objective of the Interlace project is strengthening cooperation, learning, and peer-to-peer interactions between regions and projects. As part of this process, Natalia Burgos from the Interlace team was invited to take part in a knowledge exchange Task Force organized by Clearing House Project. The Task Force took place in Bogotá (Colombia) on 30 and 31 March 2023 and focused on discussing strategies for urban forest management and implementation, with an emphasis on governance and community participation.

Carbon farming promises to mitigate climate change whilst generating income for farmers – but can this promise be realised, and what are the risks? The European Parliament’s Environment and Agricultural Committees held a joint hearing to understand how EU policy can support on-farm carbon sequestration. The hearing featured two panels, including a presentation from Ecologic Institute Fellow Hugh McDonald on the challenges of carbon farming certification.

Alongside Anne Siemons (Oeko-Institut), Hugh McDonald critically presented a soil-focussed assessment of the EU Commission's recently proposed Framework for Carbon Removals Certification.

McKenna Davis, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, was one of 8 experts speaking on the topic of 'strategies for urban biodiversity' during the Digital Blue Green Event hosted by the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute on 14 March 2023. She began by outlining key challenges facing urban water management, including an increasing frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events, urban surface sealing and combined sewer overflow events. McKenna then introduced the NICHES project and its aim to rethink the status quo by deploying nature-based solutions and approaching the urban water system as a holistic Social-Ecological-Technical-System (SETS).

Drawing on results from several interdisciplinary research projects funded under the German research focus "Plastics in the Environment", Linda Mederake (Ecologic Institute) shared insights regarding the patterns of societal perception and behavior in dealing with (micro)plastics as well as the scope for action of different actors to reduce (micro)plastic emissions into the environment.

In 2023, the EU adopted regulations defining under which conditions green hydrogen is considered as fully renewable and the methodology to determine the GHG intensity of hydrogen and other PtX products. To discuss these requirements with stakeholders from third countries considering to export renewable hydrogen or derivates to the EU, the International PtX Hub organized a workshop series in 2023. Raffaele Piria coordinated the conception of these workshops and gave a presentation on the climate and energy policy context for the EU's hydrogen strategies and policies.

On 23 November 2022, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, participated as an expert in a hearing of the Hessian State Parliament's Committee for Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection on the Government draft of a Hessian Act on the Promotion of Climate Protection and Adaptation to the Consequences of Climate Change. Together with about 40 associations and experts, he commented on the draft law and answered questions from members of parliament.

Ewa Iwaszuk, a Fellow at Ecologic Institute, held a presentation "Policy instruments to promote implementation of nature-based solutions" at a side-event "Nature-based solutions for building performance" during the global climate conference COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt). Ewa's presentation made the case that policy instruments and their governance act as critical enablers or barriers to adoption of nature-based solutions. She presented the Urban Governance Atlas that Ecologic Institute is currently developing in the frames of the INTERLACE project and discussed good practice examples of policy instruments from around the world that support the implementation of nature-based solutions at a building level.

From 7 to 19 December 2022, the international community is scheduled to come together to discuss the future of the Convention on Biological Diversity. One of the key items that will be negotiated at the upcoming COP15 is the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In the light of these upcoming negotiations on 2 November 2022, the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at New York University School of Law and the German Consulate General in New York organized an event with experts from New York City and Berlin to discuss the role of local governments in implementing global biodiversity targets, including the ways in which cities can support urban biodiversity. Sandra Naumann, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, presented Berlin's strategy to promote urban biodiversity and participated in the final panel.

During this webinar, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Nico Stelljes presented the highlights and the findings of the project "Indicators of an Integrated German Marine Policy" and gave an overview of a possible set of indicators to assess an integrated maritime policy at a national level, with the scope to stimulate discussions on similarities and differences in the integrated approaches to the maritime economy in the Baltic Sea Region.