The European Environment Agency (EEA) has released a report titled “[Imagining a sustainable Europe in 2050: Exploring implications for core production and consumption systems” on 10 April 2025.
This report analyses how Europe’s food, mobility, built environment, and energy systems could transform for sustainability. The Report focuses on the key characteristics and interactions of these four systems in 2050 and explores how tax policies can help reshape them.
On the one hand, these systems deliver on Europe′s vital needs for energy, food, mobility and shelter. On the other hand, these same systems cumulatively drive climate and environmental pressures and impacts in Europe and across the globe.
This report draws on qualitative evidence emerging from seven online participatory workshops that harvested the collective intelligence of a range of experts, complemented by desk-based research and expert interviews. The four imagined futures, or ′imaginaries′, represent possible sustainable futures for Europe in 2050.
The report delves into the main characteristics of Europe′s core production and consumption systems in 2050, namely the food, mobility and energy systems and the built environment, identifies challenges and opportunities across the four different futures and reflects on the interactions between systems. It also highlights areas where actions have the potential to transform core production and consumption systems towards sustainability.
The Report presents four distinct “imaginaries”—alternative visions of the future—that explore potential pathways for systemic change. Each vision considers its vulnerabilities to future European and global disruptions.
These are as follows:
1. Technocracy for the common good
National governments use top-down regulatory frameworks and instruments as well as advanced information and communication technologies to enable unprecedented monitoring of ecological, social and economic systems. The functionality and stability of digital operations rely on resilient systems, effective data sharing and secure AI deployment. At the same time, positive citizen-government relations depend on acceptance of rules, effective nudging for behaviour change and a commitment to democratic governance and social equity. Together, these elements create a robust framework for a well-functioning society.
2. Unity in adversity
Recurrent environmental and climate disasters, geopolitical insecurity and financial shocks have had devastating impacts in Europe. These include both shorter‑term events like deadly heat waves, floods, wildfires and severe storms as well as longer‑term changes like droughts, increases in zoonotic diseases, decreased biodiversity and ecosystem loss. The associated social and economic damages and crises inflict additional hardships on human societies, pressing European nations to their limits. In response to these compounding crises, Member States rally in support of a strong, federated EU, forgoing many aspects of sovereignty in pursuit of a stable, liveable and sustainable EU.
3. The great decoupling
Economic growth and the desire for technological sovereignty encourage heavy investment in research and innovation (R&I) to transform Europe′s core production and consumption systems. Breakthroughs in technological and social innovations, due in part to resource security and demographic concerns, enabled an extraordinary decoupling of economic growth from environmental harm. At the centre of this change are resource efficiency and circularity principles, biotechnological advances and a thriving bioeconomy sector spanning energy, food and material production. Robotics, automation and Artificial intelligence (AI) are thriving. Society has largely adopted ′green′ lifestyles and rewards creativity, flexibility and mobility.
4. Ecotopia
The confluence of climate change impacts, deep scepticism about market-driven economic models and governments′ ability to fight climate change, coupled with the desire of the younger generations to live in harmony with nature, created the conditions suitable for a profound societal transformation. This transformation replaced profit maximisation and consumerism with values of sufficiency, equity and respect for nature. European populations have dispersed in search of communities of practice that reflect commitments to slow living and reduced environmental impact. Economic activities and sectors are fragmented and localised, with deglobalisation and local supply chains dominating Europe′s production and consumption system landscape.
In conclusion, the Report highlights the need for long-term thinking in policymaking, stronger institutions, and cross-sector collaboration to make Europe’s production and consumption systems more resilient and sustainable. It also emphasises embedding foresight in governance to help policymakers anticipate challenges and seize opportunities.
