The use of fossil fuels as the main source of energy for most countries has caused several negative environmental impacts, such as global warming and air pollution. Air pollution causes many health problems, causing social and economic negative effects. Worldwide efforts are being made to avoid global warming consequences through the establishment of international agreements that then lead to local policies adapted to the development of each signing nation. In addition, there is a depletion of nonrenewable resources which may be scarce or nonexistent in future generations. The preservation of resources, which is a common goal of the Circular Economy strategy and of sustainable development, is not being accomplished nowadays. In this work, the calculation of indicators and mathematical and statistical analysis were applied to clarify and evidence the trends, provide information for the decision-making process, and increase public awareness. The fact that European countries do not possess abundant reserves of fossil fuels will not change, but the results of this analysis can evolve in the future. In this work, fossil fuel energy consumption, fossil fuel depletion, and their relationship with other variables, such as energy dependence and share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption, were analyzed for 29 European countries. Furthermore, it was possible to conclude that many European countries still depend heavily on fossil fuels. Significant differences were not found in what concerns gross inland consumption per capita when the Kruskal–Wallis test was applied. It was possible to estimate that by 2050 (considering Jazz scenario) it will only remain approximately 14% of oil proven reserves, 72% of coal proven reserves and 18% of gas proven reserves. Given the small reserves of European countries on fossil fuels, if they need to use them, they will fast disappear.

“Industry 5.0” is the latest industrial revolution. A variety of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and others, come together to form it. Billions of devices are connected for high-speed data transfer, especially in a 5G-enabled industrial environment for information collection and processing. Most of the issues, such as access control mechanism, time to fetch the data from different devices, and protocols used, may not be applicable in the future as these protocols are based upon a centralized mechanism. This centralized mechanism may have a single point of failure along with the computational overhead. Thus, there is a need for an efficient decentralized access control mechanism for device-to-device (D2D) communication in various industrial sectors, for example, sensors in different regions may collect and process the data for making intelligent decisions. In such an environment, reliability, security, and privacy are major concerns as most of the solutions are based upon a centralized control mechanism. To mitigate the aforementioned issues, this paper provides the opportunities for and highlights some of the most impressive initiatives that help to curve the future. This new era will bring about significant changes in the way businesses operate, allowing them to become more cost-effective, more efficient, and produce higher-quality goods and services. As sensors are getting more accurate, cheaper, and have lower time responses, 5G networks are being integrated, and more industrial equipment and machinery are becoming available; hence, various sectors, including the manufacturing sector, are going through a significant period of transition right now. Additionally, the emergence of the cloud enables modern production models that use the cloud (both internal and external services), networks, and systems to leverage the cloud’s low cost, scalability, increased computational power, real-time communication, and data transfer capabilities to create much smarter and more autonomous systems. We discuss the ways in which decentralized networks that make use of protocols help to achieve decentralization and how network meshes can grow to make things more secure, reliable, and cohere with these technologies, which are not going away anytime soon. We emphasize the significance of new design in regard to cybersecurity, data integrity, and storage by using straightforward examples that have the potential to lead to the excellence of distributed systems. This groundbreaking paper delves deep into the world of industrial automation and explores the possibilities to adopt blockchain for developing solutions for smart cities, smart homes, healthcare, smart agriculture, autonomous vehicles, and supply chain management within Industry 5.0. With an in-depth examination of various consensus mechanisms, readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest developments in this field. The paper also explores the current issues and challenges associated with blockchain adaptation for industrial automation and provides a thorough comparison of the available consensus, enabling end customers to select the most suitable one based on its unique advantages. Case studies highlight how to enable the adoption of blockchain in Industry 5.0 solutions effectively and efficiently, offering valuable insights into the potential challenges that lie ahead, particularly for smart industrial applications.

Experiments have been at the heart of scientific development and education for centuries. From the outburst of Information and Communication Technologies, virtual and remote labs have added to hands-on labs a new conception of practical experience, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education. This paper aims at describing the features of a remote lab named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, embedded in a community of practice and forming the spearhead of a federation of remote labs. More particularly, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages of remote labs over virtual labs as regards to scalability constraints and development and maintenance costs. Finally, it describes an actual implementation in an international community of practice of engineering schools forming the embryo of a first world wide federation of Virtual Instruments System in Reality nodes, under the framework of a project funded by the Erasmus+ Program.