The Green Economy Report of North Rhine-Westphalia presents the economic and ecological significance of the state's Green Economy. It supports the Ministry for the Environment, Nature and Transport in implementing the [...] More

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it will be necessary to actively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to effectively limit global warming to a maximum of 1,5 degrees. To this end, [...] More

Education, knowledge transfer and capacity building on climate change impacts and adaptation options are key foundations for building a climate-resilient society, environment and economy. A lack of knowledge and a shortage of [...] More

Natural and near-natural ecosystems, such as intact forests and peatlands, provide a variety of ecosystem services and render high value to society. Determining the economic value of such services is an important prerequisite [...] More

Implementing a “Just Transition” is a complex task for society. The challenges are great: It is not just a matter of providing answers to the climate crisis, but of dealing with a multitude of crises that overlap or even [...] More

Digitalisation is profoundly changing our society and economy, but its socio-ecological effects are double-edged. The Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) has clearly identified this ambivalence of digitalisation in its [...] More

The food system plays a central role in meeting sustainability goals, especially in the areas of climate and biodiversity protection. In particular, the consumption of animal products, especially dairy and meat, is associated [...] More

In the German National Bioeconomy Strategy from 2020, the federal government formulated guidelines for a sustainable and bio-based economy that relies on natural material flows. These guidelines offer the Federal State of [...] More

The German government as well as a range of industry stakeholders are putting a major emphasis on the importance of green hydrogen as a pathway to decarbonization, as exemplified by the National Hydrogen Strategy of 2020. The [...] More

As basis for the Environmental Sector Report 2022 for the state of North-Rhine Westphalia this project is investigating the fundamentals and significance of the environmental sector in NRW. The IÖW is focusing on an [...] More

The preservation of our natural resources and biological diversity is one of the generational tasks of the coming decades. Considering increasing social tensions, socio-technical change processes, social pluralization and [...] More

Climate change has arrived in Germany – noticeably and evidently. The blooming period occurs two weeks earlier than several years ago, exceptional heat and drought events are becoming increasingly less exceptional. This [...] More

The EU and other regions of the world face tremendous social, economic and environmental challenges. Current production and consumption systems are highly unsustainable, but are deeply embedded in current ways of life, [...] More

The Paris Agreement, which is binding under international law and was adopted at the 21st International Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015, has provided a new basis for climate protection policy in all countries. [...] More

The climate and biodiversity crises continue to come to a dramatic head, while the political responses to these challenges remain inadequate, even after the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court. Climate targets have [...] More