Description: This paper aims to provide a comprehensive background and overview of key issues, debates and positions related to the international regulation and application of intellectual property rights over biological resources, including biotechnology, and the use and protection of the traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities. It explores the linkages among biological diversity, rural livelihoods, biotechnology developments and intellectual property with specific view on the relationship between access to biological and genetic resources, agriculture systems, food security, and increased poverty levels around the world. The paper starts by outlining the background and evolution of intellectual property rights. It then provides two case studies on how intellectual property rights affect biodiversity and traditional knowledge. In the main part, the paper indulges on the international governance of biodiversity and intellecutal property rights, especially focussing on the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), the World Intellecutal Property Organization (WIPO), and the World Trade Organization with its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellecutal Property Rights (TRIPS). However it also sheds light on the increasing impacts of bilateral agreements that govern intellectual property rights in conjunction with the plurilateral International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and it analyses their relationship with the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the CBD. The paper finishes by sketching out ideas for a way forward.

Description: The innovative software system "myEcoCost" enables to gather and communicate resource and environmental data for products and services in global value chains. The system has been developed in the consortium of the European research project myEcoCost and forms a basis of a new, highly automated environmental accounting system für companies and consumers. The prototype of the system, linked to financial accounting of companies, was developed and tested in close collaboration with large and small companies. This brochure gives a brief introduction to the vision linked to myEcoCost: a network formed by collaborative environmental accounting nodes collecting environmental data at each step in a product's value chains. It shows why better life cycle data are needed and how myEcoCost addresses and solves this problem. Furthermore, it presents options for a future upscaling of highly automated environmenal accounting for prodcuts and services.

Description: In early September 2014, about 4.000 scientists, activists and artists at the 4th International Conference on Degrowth sent out two messages. 1. Industrialized societies will change, either by disaster or by design. Accelerated resource exploitation and climate change can force societies into a transition. Or they swiftly develop new forms of economic, political and social organization which respect the planetary boundaries. 2. "Degrowth" has become a new social movement which translates scientific insights into cultural change, political change and social practice. Hence, the conference itself was an experiment on the potentials and limits of share economy, commoning and sufficiency. A team of young scholars and activists from different German research institutes and non-govern- mental organisations prepared the conference. The team of the Wuppertal Institute was partly involved in the preperation of the conference. Scientists from all research groups took part in the conference, presenting and discussing project results. The publication is a collection of contributions of the Wuppertal Institute to the conference and covers pivotal issues of the degrowth-debate: indicator development (Freyling & Schepelmann), working time reduction (Buhl), feminist theory (Biesecker & Winterfeld), and urban transition (Best).

Description: Another summit of change, known as Rio+20, has passed in summer 2012, nourishing the rumours of a green economy. Building up a green economy seems to be the all over recipe for different crises of capitalism, among them climate change and resource scarcity. Yet efficiency and consistency, as their main strategies, do not suffice to reach sustainable levels, as they cause rebound effects and keep stimulating economy growth. Obviously, there are limits to green growth, too. Can we conceive an economy, and respective economic institutions, that serve human needs and wealth without a built-in necessity to grow? What kind of political, mental, and individual changes does a sufficiency economy require? And what are perspectives and policies to actually start implementing it? Just before Rio +20 the symposium "Economy of Sufficiency", devoted to Wolfgang Sachs on the occasion of his 65th birthday in 2011, examined these questions in three dimensions. Accordingly this selection of contributions to the symposium follows the chapters "Wealth in diversity" (Ashok Khosla, Marianne Gronemeyer, Vandana Shiva), "Enjoyable limits" (Richard B. Norgaard, Tim Jackson) and "Creating commons" (Ezio Manzini, Silke Helfrich). The essays indicate the historical development of the ideas on a sufficiency economy. Wandering through discourses of sustainable development for several decades, the authors map the range of perspectives, practices as well as barriers and bridge them between cultures, agencies and schools.

Description: This study conducted by Wuppertal Institute and Germanwatch explores how the social pillar of sustainability at the local level could be met in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) projects. For this purpose, the authors evaluate the livelihood dimension of CSP technology based on a case study conducted on the 160 MW pilot CSP plant Nooro I in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

Description: The CO2 utilisation is discussed as one of the future low-carbon technologies in order to accomplish a full decarbonisation in the energy intensive industry. CO2 is separated from the flue gas stream of power plants or industrial plants and is prepared for further processing as raw material. CO2 containing gas streams from industrial processes exhibit a higher concentration of CO2 than flue gases from power plants; consequentially, industrial CO2 sources are used as raw material for the chemical industry and for the synthesis of fuel on the output side. Additionally, fossil resources can be replaced by substitutes of reused CO2 on the input side. If set up in a right way, this step into a CO2-based circular flow economy could make a contribution to the decarbonisation of the industrial sector and according to the adjusted potential, even rudimentarily to the energy sector. In this study, the authors analyse potential CO2 sources, the potential demand and the range of applications of CO2. In the last chapter of the final report, they give recommendations for research, development, politics and economics for an appropriate future designing of CO2 utilisation options based upon their previous analysis.

Description: The European Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (EOOFS) plays a pivotal role in understanding, monitoring, forecasting, and managing the complex dynamics and resources of Europe's Seas. It serves as a critical interdisciplinary system for addressing a myriad of challenges, from climate change impacts to marine resources management. However, to ensure its continued effectiveness, it is essential to identify and address the gaps within this system and provide actionable recommendations for improvements at short- and long-term. Therefore, this document serves as a baseline that can guide the funders and supporters of the EOOFS, as well as the various stakeholders directly or indirectly related to the EOOFS, towards the gaps that hinder better monitoring and prediction of various ocean phenomena, along the ocean observing value chain. The main identified gaps are related to spatial and temporal coverage of data and products of the EOOFS, the data integration and accessibility by various types of users, the uncertainties of projections, the technological challenges, as well as to the engagement of various actors and the communication of results and services to them. The main recommendations to be taken into consideration for addressing all highlighted gaps are detailed in the report for every phenomenon and component of the ocean value chain. These recommendations are not provided just to satisfy the academic interest of the EOOFS community, however, they may have profound implications for multiple sectors and the society as a whole, if taken into consideration. This is due to the fact that the EOOFS is essential for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, in improving the efficiency of the marine resources’ management, in enhancing the resilience of marine and coastal ecosystems as well as coastal cities and infrastructures against disasters and extreme events, for shipping and navigation safety, and for the scientific advancements and innovations of Europe in the field of marine science that serves the society. We propose a scoring approach that can evaluate the EOOFS readiness level (RL) in monitoring ocean phenomena, on a regular basis and in a systematic way. We have demonstrated the usefulness of this approach by implementing it based on our assessment and the feedback of the EOOFS community. The main results clearly show that the EOOFS has “Fitness for Purpose” readiness levels (RL 7) in the three main pillars of the value chain (Input, Process, and Output) only for one ocean phenomenon, while 83% of ocean phenomena have RLs varying from 1 (Idea) to 4 (Trial). A deeper analysis of the scoring results reflects that the EOOFS major gaps are predominantly concentrated in two of its three pillars: the coordination and observational elements (Process) and data management and information products (Output) (Figure 1). In a changing world that is affecting all aspects of European lives, it is crucial to significantly invest and support the EOOFS to better monitor and accurately predict the European Seas, and provide sustained services that can help businesses and improve the resilience of communities and resources.