The EU Environmental Foresight System (FORENV). Final report of 2020-21 annual cycle emerging issues impacting the delivery of a zero-pollution ambition by 2050: emerging issues impacting the delivery of a zero-pollution ambition by 2050

European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment, White, O., Garnett, K., Zamparutti, T., et al., 2022. — 147 p. — ISBN 978-92-76-40682-2.Each year FORENV – the EU Foresight System for Emerging Environmental Issues – identifies and characterises 10 priority emerging issues of potential importance to the European environment and environmental policy. In its third cycle (2020-21) FORENV explored emerging societal, economic or environmental issues that may impact, positively or negatively, our ability to deliver a zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment by 2050. This focus of FORENV was to inform thinking and discussion related to the implementation of the Zero Pollution Action Plan (COM(2021) 400 final). Specifically, FORENV outputs are intended to support the establishment in 2022 of the zero pollution monitoring and outlook framework and provide input to stakeholder engagement through the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Forum. The 10 priority emerging issues identified relate to social, economic and technological developments, including, among others, a shift to increasingly digital lifestyles, the emergence of new tools and technology for monitoring and communicating pollution data, advancements in materials, cellular and synthetic biology, and an accelerating race to space. To enhance policy relevance, a synthesis assessment was also completed, which identified five key clusters of change: pervasive digital tools and lifestyles; transformations in where and how we live and work; new pollution monitoring and data methods; living buildings and new materials; and multi-faceted food system revolutions. These clusters are presented together with associated implications for pollution, uncertainties and key questions for policy.