![]() ![]() Embracing and innovating multi-level governance and collaboration with the private sector can effectively harness resources and promote the systemic change necessary for a sustainable EU. To achieve sustainability, public policy would need to undergo a revamp, with redesigned finance and tax systems to tackle climate change, inequality, and phase out unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Governance plays an equally pivotal role in this transformation. Developing and prioritising essential public services and improving working conditions can pave the way for fair and sustainable economic development. ![]() To achieve this, redefining wellbeing is paramount, by moving beyond material wealth and considering quality of life, health, social life and environmental factors. This radical shift is crucial for the wellbeing and participation of all members of society, while ensuring intergenerational fairness and thus taking into account the needs of future generations. One critical aspect is the need to address growing discontent and inequality with a new social contract, which can help tackle pressing challenges and transform the economy. This vision emphasises local solutions, solidarity, and direct democracy as fundamental principles.īut what do these four, very different futures have in common? By analysing the possible pathways that can take us there, JRC researchers revealed some common key areas of intervention, which can allow the EU to reach sustainability by 2050. In stark contrast, the fourth scenario envisions a society driven by citizens taking matters into their own hands, striving for an egalitarian society centred on wellbeing and sufficiency. Conversely, another future scenario describes a society where the private sector’s individualist, entrepreneurial spirit spearheads sustainability transition efforts through technological innovation, in which the state assumes a guiding, incentivising role.Ī third vision presents a world grappling with ongoing, permanent crises, where the EU's primary objective revolves around mitigating and managing climate change risks within a deteriorating geopolitical reality. In one of these potential future worlds, change is driven by strong state intervention, with a focus on sustainability, social and economic policies enforced through tight regulation and ample social services. The four versions of a sustainable EU in 2050 invite us to imagine different possible futures. The results of this remarkable thought experiment, outlined in great detail in this recently published Science for Policy report, which fed into this year’s Strategic Foresight Report. These visions and pathways shed light on the trade-offs and synergies, providing invaluable insights for the path before us. To aid policymakers in designing resilient and future-proof strategies, researchers have embarked on an innovative foresight process, envisioning four distinct versions of a sustainable EU in 2050 and the different pathways to get there starting from today. While there are several clear-cut targets for the green transition, as well as the limits set by nature itself, we are still reckoning with the social and economic changes needed for sustainability. Globally, the EU is in the driving seat of this combat with its ambition of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, but what exactly this sustainable EU will look like and how we will reach it, is not yet fully known. This is especially true for far reaching transformations that are needed in our societies, economies and governance systems as we engage in our fight against climate change while ensuring a fair and prosperous EU. ![]() Sometimes the journey is even more important than the destination. Imagining alternative paths towards 2050 helps us to draw up strategic areas of interventions to reach our goals in 2050. Through foresight, instead of doing the impossible and predicting a single plausible future, we imagine different alternative scenarios of a sustainable EU in 2050. ![]() Famous physicist Niels Bohr once said “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” ![]()
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