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Monitoring 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.
© Öko-Institut

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?
© plainpicture / Anke Doerschlen

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.
© Oeko-Institut

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.
© fStopImages / Malte Müller

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).
© plainpicture / Ulrich Mertens

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.
© Oeko-Institut

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.
© plainpicture / Alexander Schönberg

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.
© Öko-Institut

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.
© fStopImages / Malte Müller

“Cooperation delivers positive change”

Blog 09/19/2024

Preventing double counting while ensuring good governance and environmental integrity – Mandy Rambharos knows what makes a good climate change mitigation project. At EDF, the Environmental Defense Fund, she is working hard to enhance the quality of carbon credits.
© Maurizio Di Pietro / Climate Visuals Countdown

Sustainability dimensions of hydrogen in specialist discourse – an inventory

Blog 09/03/2024

Hydrogen is a key factor on the path to climate neutrality in Germany. This requires “green hydrogen” – produced in a climate-neutral way and, in the long term, also in many countries of the Global South. The fact that it should be sustainable is increasingly undisputed. However, there are different views on the dimensions that contribute to the sustainability of hydrogen and its derivatives.
© plainpicture / Martin Sigmund

It’s all about CO2 – or not quite?

Blog 08/15/2024

It’s not good for the climate when a cow belches. Nor is it good when an old air-conditioning unit is tipped on a waste dump. For CO2 is not the only gas harming the climate. There are many more gases that Tim Brown, Tradewater CEO, deals with.
© plainpicture / Walter Bibikow

“The Global South can benefit from carbon markets”

Blog 07/23/2024

She ended up working on carbon markets more “by accident” than by design, as she herself says. After completing her Master’s, Kristin Qui was looking for a role in international diplomacy, preferably one which also covered sustainable development.
©plainpicture / Malte Mueller

“I kinda wanted to land the plane”

Blog 07/05/2024

Donna Lee had a clear plan for her retirement. After many years in the US Department of State, frequent travel, living and working out of a suitcase, a fulfilling but exhausting career, she wanted to “land the plane”, as she herself says. To improve the quality of the voluntary carbon market Donna Lee and partner Duncan van Bergen set up Calyx Global.
The Partnership for Responsible Battery and Metal Recycling (ProBaMet) Project starts in Nigeria with visits to lead smelters in Ogun State

Blog 06/12/2024

Researcher Frederick Adjei shares insights into the work and approach of the collaboration with local stakeholders within the ProBaMet Project.
CCQI scores for IFM projects point to substantial integrity risks

Blog 03/25/2024

The Carbon Credit Quality Initiative (CCQI) has released new scores for the integrity risks of carbon credits from improved forest management (IFM) projects. We find that unrealistic baselines and underestimated leakage are likely to lead to significant overestimation of emission reductions or removals under all assessed methodologies. The likelihood of additionality depends strongly on the forest management practices that are implemented. The sustainable development benefits are more limited compared to most other project types.
Impressions from Bali - how findings on site influence research

Blog 03/21/2024

Dr Hannes Böttcher presents a major EU project and reports on his trip to Bali. There are good reasons for travelling to project meetings from time to time to gain a better understanding of other groups.

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