next
previous
items
European Union flag
Home
Topics
Analysis and data
Countries
Newsroom
About us

Drivers of change of relevance for Europe's environment and sustainability

Publication Created 13 Mar 2020 Published 19 May 2020
Cover Image
This report, building on the experience of both the EEA and Eionet, presents a synthesis of global and European megatrends with illustrations of key emerging trends, wild cards and uncertainties. It aims to inform about on‑going, emerging and potential future developments, raise awareness and contribute to the diffusion of anticipatory thinking.
Publication Created 13 Mar 2020 Published 19 May 2020
EEA Report No 25/2019
This report, building on the experience of both the EEA and Eionet, presents a synthesis of global and European megatrends with illustrations of key emerging trends, wild cards and uncertainties. It aims to inform about on‑going, emerging and potential future developments, raise awareness and contribute to the diffusion of anticipatory thinking.

Download

See additional files

Additional Files

Related content

Figures used

News and articles

Building the foundations for fundamental change Achieving sustainability will require fundamental, transformative, and cross-cutting change, entailing major shifts in society’s goals, incentives, technologies, social practices and norms, as well as in knowledge systems and governance approaches.
Emerging trends: What are the environmental impacts of artificial meat, delivery drones, blockchain and synthetic biology? Assessing the environment’s prospects in a fast-changing world requires the consideration of emerging trends. A series of joint European Environment Agency (EEA) and Eionet briefings, published today, explores the potential environmental and policy impacts from four emerging technological innovations.
Forward-looking assessments for better understanding of sustainability outlooks The European Environment Agency (EEA) has recently published a report on the 'drivers of change' that impact Europe's environment and sustainability’ prospects. We interviewed the project manager of the report, Lorenzo Benini who works at the EEA as system assessment and sustainability expert.
Complex network of European and global developments impacts sustainability A wide variety of rapid and long-term societal developments in Europe and globally have important effects on the environment in Europe. A European Environment Agency (EEA) report, published today, analyses these ‘drivers of change’, providing insights on their impacts on EU sustainability ambitions.

Related briefings

‘Future-proofing’ the transition to sustainability: focus on policy assumptions and foresight To become sustainable, Europe must change some of the ways people live, work, produce and consume. Using policy to achieve such complex and large-scale transformations is not easy. This briefing explores how to future-proof sustainability policies and avoid blind spots through a foresight-based framework, which includes several participatory exercises involving a multidisciplinary group of experts. Assessing future risks and their potential impacts can identify mitigation measures and safeguard strategies to encourage the transition to sustainability and feed future policy.
Environment and climate pressures from household consumption in Europe Europe and the world face unprecedented sustainability challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and pollution. These challenges are largely caused by unsustainable consumption as countries strive for economic growth and people pursue well-being. Household consumption pressures and impacts the environment and drive climate change.
From the daily office commute to flexible working patterns — teleworking and sustainability The COVID-19 pandemic transformed our traditional understanding of ‘work’ and pushed us to embrace new ways of working. Instead of the daily commute to the office, many people are choosing to work from home or a 'third place'. This briefing builds on the outcome of a participatory foresight process and desk research to examine how teleworking could affect our daily lives, our health and the environment.
Exiting the Anthropocene? Exploring fundamental change in our relationship with nature The ways in which societies, institutions and citizens relate to and value nature have played a key role in the interconnected biodiversity, climate change, natural resource and health crises we face. This briefing explores how to reframe the relationships between humans and nature. It examines how holistically understanding humans’ deep interconnection with other life forms and ecosystems could lead to new motivations to protect nature and accelerate the societal transformation we need to live well within the limits of the planet.
With people and for people: Innovating for sustainability Innovation is both a primary source of systemic environmental and sustainability challenges and an essential element in society’s response to such challenges. Technological innovation, which is a policy priority across Europe, has historically been a major ‘driver of change’ for society and the ecosphere. Although technological innovations deliver a multitude of benefits, they are also associated with significant collateral hazards and new challenges.
Growth without economic growth Economic growth is closely linked to increases in production, consumption and resource use and has detrimental effects on the natural environment and human health. It is unlikely that a long-lasting, absolute decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures and impacts can be achieved at the global scale; therefore, societies need to rethink what is meant by growth and progress and their meaning for global sustainability.

See also

Cross-cutting story 5: Co-benefits of addressing climate change and pollution This cross-cutting story examines the measures being taken to address climate change and pollution. It also explores the potential synergies and trade-offs between measures designed to address these two key societal issues.
Archived
Narratives for change: about the series Not long after the new coronavirus arrived in Europe, the EEA published Drivers of change of relevance for Europe’s environment and sustainability. The report’s main key message is bold: the desirable normal does not exist.
Archived
Drivers of change: challenges and opportunities for sustainability in Europe The world is becoming increasingly interconnected through flows of information, resources, goods and services, people and ideas, and this implies that changes occurring in one part of the world are likely to have a ripple effect on others. This means that production and consumption systems in Europe are not isolated from one another or the rest of the world. Instead, they are influenced by multiple 'drivers of change'.

Permalinks

Geographic coverage

For references, please go to https://eea.europa.eu./publications/drivers-of-change or scan the QR code.

PDF generated on 22 Nov 2024, 12:57 PM

EEA Page URL QR
Document Actions
The EEA is an agency of the European Union

Engineered by: EEA Web Team

Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18

Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14

Code for developers

Systems Status

Legal notice

Creative commons license

CMS login