In the second horizon scanning process of the environment department, the following ten emerging future topics have been identified and elaborated that could be of high environmental relevance:Quantum computingCryptocurrenciesTechnological innovations on the way to climate-friendly air transportNew regionalismResilience as the basis of a sustainable societyMobile workGrowing through crises: The EU's changing scope for actionWorld (dis)orderShaping opinions in the digital ageThe future of inner citiesThe future issues presented in this report have been identified in the context of the Corona pandemic and Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine. The report thus includes entirely new future topics as well as already known future topics that have been influenced by the pandemic and the war of aggression, but have acquired a new environmentally relevant quality.
Digitalisation is profoundly changing our society and therefore also the way in which the environment is researched and governance is carried out. E-government is intended to make administration more efficient and bring it closer to citizens, while new ideas are constantly being implemented in environmental research, such as the CO2 calculator, apps for sustainable consumption or big data-supported climate simulations. But are these measures already exploiting the full potential that digitalisation holds for the environment department and its environmental research and governance in the digital age? And how will the work of the environment department change when citizens, civil society, companies, science and politics, and therefore society as a whole, undergo major changes as a result of digitalisation?