FLA anticipate Sustainable Development Challenges for Better Policy Support

This chapter explores current and forthcoming sustainable development challenges. By comparing the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (European Council, 2006), its related monitoring reports and the ´Facing the future: time for the EU to meet global challenges` (Boden et al., 2010) report, we can conclude that many identified future-oriented issues cover topics well reflected in sustainability indicator systems. Such comparison can help policy-making in view of developing better understanding on unsustainable trends and respective need for correction or prevention. Our findings suggest also that data collection could be enhanced to better monitor emerging issues currently not well covered by indicator systems. Today’s sustainability indicator systems offer information on past and present states but provide limited support to understand future developments. Combining sustainability monitoring with forward-looking activities (FLA) could therefore enhance policy support in developing more adaptive and anticipatory approaches to better orient societal change towards sustainable development.

CARABIAS Vicente;  CAGNIN Cristiano;  HAEGEMAN Karel;  KONNOLA Totti; 

2012-10-19

EFP

JRC56964

978-3-200-02811-1,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC56964,