On 13 February 2026, the EEAC Working Groups on Climate & Energy and on Sustainable Development hosted a joint webinar on imagining futures and using foresight tools in the work of advisory councils.
The discussion focused on how futuring, visioning and strategic foresight can help councils move beyond “prediction” and instead explore multiple plausible pathways, stress-test policies against uncertainty, and support more coherent, future-proof decision-making.
The webinar featured contributions from Folmer de Haan (WG co-chair) and Yaelle Reed (EEAC Secretariat), who opened the session and guided the discussion. Two external speakers, Anne-Katrin Bock from the Joint Research Centre and Vadim Kononenko from the European Environment Agency, shared insights on how they use foresight, horizon scanning and megatrends in their daily work.
The session also included presentations on practical applications of futuring within advisory councils. Katriina Siivonen (Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development) presented the Room 2050 project, Maya Bogers (Netherlands Scientific Climate Council) discussed the council’s report Fast Forward with Vision, and Gemma O’Reilly (Irish National Economic and Social Council) introduced a futuring exercise on the energy transition.
Several speakers pointed to ongoing work to build foresight capacity and embed these tools in practice, including upcoming training resources and continued use of horizon scanning and scenario methods within institutions and networks.
