Country profile - Future developments (Belgium)

The foreseen demographic changes are characterised by a general growth in population (around 11 % between 2010 and 2030). The share of people aged 65 years and over will increase from 17 % in 2010 to 23 % in 2030¹. This projected trend is about the same in the Flemish and the Walloon Regions. However, in the Brussels-Capital Region this increase will be weaker, from 14 % in 2010 to 16 % in 2030, because of a higher birth rate. Another important foreseen development is the growing number of households in the population. They will influence the urbanisation patterns and will go with new types of consumption that might have negative effects on the environment. Regarding economic forecasts, the length of the financial crisis remains uncertain, as well as the social and environmental side effects. The likely decrease in environmental pressures due to the current negative economic growth rates will nevertheless not contribute to sustainable development.

At the sectoral level, under baseline assumptions, the energy and transport sectors will keep on exerting high environmental pressures: regarding energy², national requirements for coal and natural gas will increase between 2000 and 2030. The surge in renewable energy sources (RES) is noticeable (4.2 % on average per annum). Final energy demand will increase by 10 % during the period 2000-2030; however, this scenario, carried out in 2007, does not take into account new elements such as the adoption of the package ‘Energy-climate’ at the European level and the delay of the phasing out of three nuclear power plants

• regarding transport³, according to four reference scenarios, passenger transport is projected to increase between 2005 and 2030, with a growth rate estimated between 22 % and 30 % depending on the reference scenario. The growth of passenger transport is dominated by private cars. The freight transport also rises in the four reference scenarios. Trucks and heavy goods vehicles remain the main mode of freight transport in 2030.

Our food consumption is also expected to contribute to future environmental pressures within Belgium and at the global level but no baseline scenarios have been developed for food.

As a feedback loop, climate change caused by our unsustainable consumption and production patterns might also have severe impacts on the environment with the foreseen increase in the number of extreme climate events, such as storms, floods and droughts⁴.