A Fair Transition Towards Climate Neutrality closes DLR Projektträger's four-part Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). The report examines Europe's path to climate neutrality with a focus on fairness: who bears the costs, who gains the benefits, and how governments keep public trust along the way.

The foresight process combined desk research with input from 168 experts across 22 countries, five in-depth interviews, and a workshop with 42 participants from 17 countries. Together these steps produced 24 trends, then narrowed the field to the ten with the strongest impact on fairness and legitimacy.

Top trends include accelerating climate impacts outpacing adaptation spending, uneven access to clean technology and mobility, and cultural narratives shaping public acceptance of transition policies. The report traces first- and second-order effects for each trend, from strained EU solidarity between regions to widening gaps in local implementation capacity.

Building on these findings, the report sets out a best-case scenario for 2040, built on four pillars: fairness embedded directly into climate governance and fiscal design, protection for households and communities against unequal transition costs, participatory and place-based decision-making, and an inclusive skills transformation keeping workers ready for the shift toward climate neutrality.