A day in Europe in 2050 The sun rises over the floating city of NeoAtlantis, an ecological engineering masterpiece designed after the rising waters of the 2030s. The streets, once crowded with cars, are now vegetated walks where only bicycles and autonomous solar capsules circulate. This morning, I take a hydrogen-suspended tram to my oceanic urban planning workshop. Our project: a new modular coastal city, able to adapt to climate change. Since the energy revolution of 2035, Europe has become the world leader in renewable energy. The Green Deal of 2040 enabled the regeneration of forests, the depollution of oceans and the development of vertical urban farms. Thanks to technological advances, everyone works less, leaving more time for education, art and solidarity. At the end of the day, I meet my friends in a café where vegetable protein dishes are printed in 3D. We are discussing new citizen projects to further improve our daily lives. The future we have built together is finally sustainable and fair.

A positive vision for the future in 2040 will be particularly influenced by cooperation between European countries and important global players. Rising greenhouse gas emissions can only be regulated by global agreements and by no means at local level. This can only be achieved if, at the same time, the standard of living or economic growth increases. If this is not taken into account, the transformation process towards reduced emissions will not be socially enforceable. Globally, a new era of free trade is needed with the simultaneous introduction of a global emissions taxonomy. For the emerging economies of the Global South, this would be a good compromise in maintaining good trading conditions while complying with an emissions taxonomy.

The road to 2040 is hard and rocky, above all wars dominate most of the planet, in Europe in the Middle East and Africa. Famines and emigrations are the consequence, people try to emigrate to the countries not yet affected by the war. After initial tensions due to the flood of refugees, people come together, learn from each other and begin to see cultural differences as an opportunity for the future. Peoples and cultures are growing together, new ways of life are emerging. The common intellect uses the society for novel production lines, new technologies emerge, based on the environmentally sound use of existing raw materials.

When I was young I thought about the future to which the technological advances of our time would take us always towards an easier, more comfortable life. I saw that after the hardships in which my parents lived my generation did not lack anything, food, shelter, leisure. All our needs were covered and then, other needs appeared that became essential and that ended with the dreamed future to turn it into a future described in "1984" where the leading leadership oppresses the people by handling information, where we survive thanks to the aid of the government that fights against our maximum enemy that is inequality, the oppression of previous regimes, the extreme right, businessmen and any other that are invented to divert our attention from reality. Our leaders only think of improving their own lives, of keeping us oppressed and grateful for saving us from oppression. But, life is a wheel: ‘Difficult times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create difficult times.’ I think we have completed another wheel, thanks to the struggle of a few, all the lies are being uncovered. Technocrats rule over ideologues again. Votes at the polls are now won with empirical realities and not with fears of the past or ideals of the future. Technological advances are again at the service of the population and our leaders are again walking among the people listening to their needs and trying to improve our future.