This report for the European Commission, Directorate-General Environment explores emerging risks, issues, and opportunities for a water resilient Europe in 2050. The study, conducted by Eunomia, Milieu Consulting, and Cranfield University, highlights five clusters of disruptive changes for water resilience and poses some high-level policy questions:

  1. Need for sectoral adjustment: The drive for water-intensive sectors (such as agriculture, manufacturing, and some recreational services) to adapt to sufficiency-based water governance, and the potential for an emerging hydrogen energy economy to undermine sustainable water-use initiatives.  
  2. New technology, new risks? The potential for using new technologies, such as desalination plants, controlled farming systems, and digital systems to better manage water and protect supplies – and the potential associated risks, such as high energy use and cybersecurity threats.
  3. Hydropolitics – a driver of conflict or cooperation: More frequent droughts and climate-related population displacement generating competition and potentially conflict over access to water at regional, national, and transnational scales, with basin-level governance to build trust and cooperation between riparian states increasingly important.
  4. Water inequalities and just transitions: The risk that flooding, water scarcity, and poor water quality will disrupt water-dependent sectors, threaten public health, impact food security, and exacerbate wealth and rural-urban inequalities.
  5. Water governance – centralised or decentralised system? The potential role of public and private investment to develop innovative water technologies and normalise water reuse, along with a possible shift to more decentralised management models and accompanying regulatory challenges.

This is the final report for the 2022-23 annual cycle of the EU Foresight System for the Systematic Identification of Emerging Environmental Issues (FORENV), which each year identifies and characterises 10 priority issues of potential importance to the European environment and relevant EU policy.

Download the report by clicking this link.

Subscribe

* indicates required
What sustainability themes are you interested in?
What information would you like to receive?

Yes please, I’d like to receive emailed information from Eunomia (tick this box to subscribe):

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit www.eunomia.eco/privacy-policy/

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices.