Federal reports

Federal Reports on Sustainable development are published every two to three years. They present assessments of the situation, strategy and policies, as well as scenarios for 2050. They propose transversal tools to implement the commitments made by Belgium since the Rio Conference in 1992.

• Achieving sustainable development objectives - Federal Report 2017
  Review of the gap between existing scenarios and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
  Innovation: translation of the SDG for federal Belgium.
• Making our consumption and production sustainable - Federal Report 2015
  Proposal of two scenarios, SET-Consumption and SET-Production, leading to a sustainably developing society by 2050.
  Innovation: first assessment of progress towards the objectives of the federal strategic long-term vision of sustainable development.
• Twenty Years of Political Commitment to Sustainable Development? Federal Report 2011
  Balance of 20 years sustainable development strategy in Belgium.
  Innovations: table of 25 key indicators and evaluation of 11 themes illustrated by 11 case studies of policies carried to reach "Sustainable Development Goals" (SDGs).
• Sustainable development indicators, objectives and visions – Federal Report 2009
  Balance of a table of 88 sustainable development indicators (SDI) and investigation of the synergies between very long term visions.
  Innovation: assessment of the distance to target between the SDIs and the political goals of sustainable development.
• Accelerate the transition to a sustainable development – Federal Report 2007
  Proposal of two scenarios, Pyramid and Mosaic, reaching ambitious SDGs by 2050.
  Innovations: methodological study and implementation of a participatory foresight exercise regarding sustainable development.
• Understanding and managing development – Federal Report 2005
  Analysis of the governance through the Federal Plan for sustainable development 2000-2004 and the federal sector-specific plans.
  Innovations: systemic approach of the TransGovern model, definition of SDG coming from international commitments and first table of SDI.
• A step towards sustainable development? – Federal Report 2002
  Study of 10 sustainable development issues coming within the federal competencies.
  Innovation: analysis of the political decision process and of multi-levels goals regarding sustainable development.
• Towards sustainable development? - Federal Report 1999
  Balance of 5 years of federal policy (1992-1997) confronted to the Rio 1992 commitments.
  Innovation: definition of sustainable development rooted in 5 cross-cutting principles from de Rio Declaration.

The federal reports fulfil two missions: assessment and very long-term foresight study:

• Assessment of the existing situation and of the policies carried out to achieve the goals defined in the long-term vision;
• A foresight study describing alternative scenarios of sustainable development to reach the goals of the long-term vision while taking into account the developing trends in Europe and the world.

The federal reports set out a systemic vision of the sustainable development policy and of the transition challenges. To this purpose, they develop:

• the TransAccount model, an accounting model which allows to quantify some elements of the sustainable development scenarios;
• the TransGovern model, a global systemic model which links the driving forces to the development capitals on which they exert pressure;
• the website Indicators of sustainable development which presents sixteen themes using 75 indicators, interconnected by the TransGovern-model.