European Topic Centre on Sustainability Transitions (ETC ST)

The thirteen European organisations work in partnership with the European Environment Agency under a Framework Partnership Agreement for the period 2022-2026. Knowledge of sustainability transitions is in its infancy, so the coherent and interlinked research done at the ETC ST provides the best opportunity to achieve a measurably improved knowledge base by the mid-2020s to inform and support the EU policies.

The transition opportunities manifest themselves in several actions under the European Green Deal and point to greater demand for solution-oriented, forward-looking knowledge on how transitions can best be achieved in the coming decades. More understanding is needed

• on innovation possibilities across critical systems such as food, energy, mobility and buildings;
• in new policy mixes to address systemic challenges;
• in new approaches to finance and economics as key enablers of transitions;
• via different pathways informed by scenarios, horizon scanning and other foresight approaches.

The project aims to enhance understanding of transition challenges and opportunities for EU policies and contribute to a more systemic, forward-looking, solution-oriented knowledge base for the next 5-year EEA flagship report, State of Environment Report 2025 (SOER 2025).

Main tasks

• Monitoring and assessing sustainability transitions in Europe through systemic lenses.
• Analysing sustainability transitions enablers: economics, finance, innovation, policies, and governance across scales.
• Developing co-created knowledge for action, including foresight, with stakeholders.

SEI Tallinn contributes to the project in several work packages and tasks. Our experts have worked on sustainability measurement and assessment applications, exploring future energy and material requirements and related impacts, exploration of planetary boundary analysis at the national level and combining machine learning and foresight scanning. SEI Tallinn also contributes to project management and stakeholder engagement in developing knowledge of sustainability.

In 2024, SEI Tallinn’s experts worked on the topics of just transition and food system indicators. In 2025, SEI Tallinn’s experts will work on the topics of multilevel governance for urban sustainability transition.

Project partners

• Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre (SEI Tallinn)
• Finnish Environment Institute (Syke)
• 4strat
• German Environment Agency (UBA)
• The Dutch Research Institute For Transitions (DRIFT)
• Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fraunhofer ISI)
• Association of the Higher Technical Institute for Research and Development (IST-ID)
• ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
• Environment Agency Austria (EAA)
• CENIA
• Thematic Center for Water Research, Studies and Project Development (TC Vode)