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  Issues to watch out for at COP30 in Belèm

  Blog 10/29/2025

  From 10 to 21 November 2025, the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) will take place in Belém, Brazil. At this year’s COP, key issues will include the new climate pledges by countries for 2035, a proposal by Brazil for a new fund to protect rainforests, further work on scaling-up climate finance for developing countries, and a framework to measure progress on adaptation. At this time of geopolitical tension and after the renewed withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, COP30 will also serve as a test of the multilateral process: how well will countries work together to address climate change?

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  Who pays for carbon? Germany’s answer to the landlord–tenant dilemma

  Blog 10/27/2025

  As Europe prepares for the start of ETS 2, the Emissions Trading System covering road transport and buildings, policymakers across the continent are facing a difficult question: How can carbon pricing be made socially fair – especially for those who have little control over their energy consumption?

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  Building Better Climate Futures: What Makes Citizen Participation in Local Climate Action Work

  Blog 08/12/2025

  From local ownership to social innovation, meaningful citizen participation is essential for climate transformation – but what makes it effective? We summarize the results from the ACHIEVE project.

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  Socially just energy efficiency: prioritising those who need it most

  Blog 08/05/2025

  Energy efficiency should not be a privilege. Low-income households often have less access to energy-efficient housing and are less likely to benefit from existing support programmes. Yet they are the ones who are most in need of relief. The EU Energy Efficiency Directive now calls for vulnerable groups to be given special attention – in the interests of social justice and effective climate protection.

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  Long-distance travel without flying – how does that work?

  Blog 07/23/2025

  July and August are among the months when most Germans go on holiday. According to statista*, in 2024 alone, more than 56 million German citizens went on holiday around 68 million times, including to faraway destinations. But what about sustainability when travelling long distances? Air travel is usually the mode of transport of choice.

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  Upgrading the Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Sector in Africa

  Blog 07/01/2025

  As the Partnership for Responsible Battery and Metal Recycling (ProBaMet) project came to an end in May 2025, Fred Adjei a researcher with Oeko-Institut and a member of the project team reflects on the project’s activities, impacts and final conference held in Abuja, Nigeria in March 2025.

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  Artificial intelligence in scientific research: ‘you need a certain basic scepticism’

  Blog 06/03/2025

  Artificial intelligence as a research assistant? It’s definitely an interesting option. After all, as in other fields, AI could take a lot of work off scientists’ hands – for example, when it comes to research or summarising findings. Oeko-Institut has therefore initiated its first projects on this topic.

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  Revised methodologies under the EU Carbon Certification Removal Framework continue to lack integrity

  Blog 05/28/2025

  In March and April 2025, the European Commission presented revised methodologies for the European Union’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF). The methodologies continue to set a much lower standard than the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism and best practice in the voluntary carbon market. If the European Commission does not fundamentally improve these methodologies, the vast majority of CRCF units will not represent any actual emission reductions or removals.

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  Monitoring that matters – transparency makes land sector climate action effective

  Blog 04/23/2025

  Land management has important implications for climate change, making it essential to monitor it transparently. Increased transparency helps to improve decisions, accountability, and responsibility of all actors.

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  Beyond artificial safety

  Blog 04/08/2025

  While we translate texts, generate images or simply search for answers with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI), very few of us consider whether AI is actually safe. This is likely due to the lack of discussion or efforts to address safety issues. Dr Heidy Khlaaf, Chief AI Scientist at the AI Now Institute, has been working on AI-related safety issues for a good many years. There is still a complete disregard of AI’s susceptibility to error, she says.

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  6,270 cars, 2,646 bikes, 1,199 pedestrians Traffic counting – what’s it for?

  Blog 03/13/2025

  On a chilly January day in Berlin, 6,270 cars drive past on Köpenicker Strasse – along with an additional 2,518 heavy vehicles such as trucks or buses and 2,646 bikes. During the course of this Wednesday, 1,199 pedestrians are also out and about in the street. How do we know?

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  The EU Carbon Certification Removal Framework and its methodologies must be improved to deliver on their goals

  Blog 12/12/2024

  In October 2024, the European Commission presented draft methodologies for the European Union’s Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF). These methodologies set out requirements for the certification of carbon removals and soil emission reductions from various mitigation activities.

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  The ICVCM approval of three REDD methodologies presents risks to the integrity of the initiative

  Blog 12/10/2024

  In November 2024, the Governing Board of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) approved three methodologies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). The methodologies are now eligible for issuing “high integrity” carbon credits under the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) label of the ICVCM. We are concerned with this decision. While the methodologies have been improved compared to previous versions, in our assessment they do not meet the requirements of the ICVCM Assessment Framework. Here we explain why.

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  Enforcement still at the start line

  Blog 11/28/2024

  Miranda Amachree has dedicated her career to the environment – driven by her decades-long passion for the subject. That’s why, until her retirement in 2021, she was the Director of Inspection & Enforcement at Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).

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  Fellowship program with renewable energy experts from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan successfully completed

  Blog 11/19/2024

  Two distinguished researchers, Dr Bahtiyor Eshanov (Uzbekistan) and Dr Abylaikhan Soltanayev (Kazakhstan) have taken part in a joint fellowship program on Living Lab research on renewable energies by Oeko-Institut, SPCE Hub, and ISoG BW.

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  Extended Producer Responsibility: a step forward towards a circular textiles system

  Blog 10/30/2024

  Progress towards Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy for textiles is real and accelerating. Across the world, EPR schemes are being rolled out. Valérie Boiten, senior policy officer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Clara Löw, senior researcher at Oeko-Institut, take a look at the policy instrument.

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  Earlier estimation of developments in the CO2 storage capacity of forests: categorising the results of the German National Forest Inventory

  Blog 10/22/2024

  The fourth German National Forest Inventory published on 8 October 2024 provides comprehensive results on the condition and development of forests for the period of 2017 to 2022. From a climate protection perspective, forests emitted more CO2 than they absorbed during this period. Below we classify the results and use our model FABio-Forest to show as an example the importance of forest modelling for climate policy.

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  Cost comparisons in international hydrogen trade: The PtX Business Opportunity Analyser (PtX-BOA)

  Blog 10/02/2024

  Hydrogen is high on policy agendas around the world. In Germany, the federal government adopted a hydrogen import strategy in July and long-distance transmission network operators are setting up essential infrastructure for a hydrogen transport network. Current estimates indicate that Germany will need to import 50 to 70 per cent of its hydrogen requirements in 2030.