Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Are we on the right path? Measuring progress towards environmental sustainability in European countries

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Current environmental and sustainable development metrics fail to capture environmental sustainability from a strong sustainability perspective, which can lead to misleading messages around the urgency to reduce environmental degradation. The Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) framework addresses this measurement gap with metrics that reflect whether the functions of natural capital can be sustained in the long term. To date, the framework has been implemented through the Strong Environmental Sustainability Index (SESI), which provides a ‘snapshot’ perspective on whether countries meet science-based environmental standards for a wide range of environmental and resource topics at a given point in time. However, SESI does not show whether countries are moving towards or away from environmental sustainability. This is a perspective often overlooked in many environmental and sustainable development metrics. To address this research gap, this paper presents the Strong Environmental Sustainability Progress Index (SESPI). SESPI comprises 19 indicators. For each of these indicators, it measures whether under current trends, standards of environmental sustainability would be reached in 2030. The resulting information is normalised, weighted and aggregated into a single index that has been computed for 28 European countries. The results show mixed progress for Europe with notable differences between countries and indicators, but generally speaking, it can be concluded that Europe is not on a sustainable path. All in all, SESPI can answer the question of whether we are making progress towards environmental sustainability and make the main messages more digestible to decision-makers and the general public.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen C, Reid M, Thwaites J, Glover R, Kestin T (2020) Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): experience from Australia. Sustain Sci 15(2):521–538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amann M, Anderl M, Borken-Kleefeld J, Cofala J, Heyes C, Höglund-Isaksson L, Kiesewetter G, Klimont Z, Moosmann L, Rafaj P, Sander R, Schöpp W, Tista M, Wagner F, Winiwarter W (2018) Progress towards the achievement of the EU’s air quality and emissions objectives. International institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker W, Saisana M, Paruolo P, Vandecasteele I (2017) Weights and importance in composite indicators: closing the gap. Ecol Ind 80:12–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doherty TS, Bland LM, Bryan BA, Neale T, Nicholson E, Ritchie EG, Driscoll DA (2018) Expanding the role of targets in conservation policy. Trends Ecol Evol 33(11):809–812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EC (2016) Synthesis report on the quality of drinking water in the Union examining Member States' reports for the 2011–2013 period, foreseen under Article 13(5) of Directive 98/83/EC. COM(2016) 666 final. Brussels

  • EEA (2003) Environmental indicators: typology and use in reporting. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. EEA internal working paper

  • EEA (2018a) European waters. Assessment of status and pressures 2018a. No 7/2018a. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. EEA Report

  • EEA (2018b) Use of freshwater resources. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • EEA (2019a) Country reports 2018 bathing season. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • EEA (2019b) The European environment—state and outlook 2020. Knowledge for transition to a sustainable Europe. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • EEA (2020a) State of nature in the EU. Results from reporting under the nature directives 2013–2018. EEA Report No 10/2020a. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

  • EEA (2020b) Nutrients in freshwater in Europe. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • EEA (2020c) National summary dashboards—Habitats Directive—Art.17. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekins P (1992) A four-capital model of wealth creation. In: Ekins P, Max-Neef M (eds) Real-life economics: understanding wealth-creation. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekins P, Simon S (2001) Estimating sustainability gaps: methods and preliminary applications for the UK and the Netherlands. Ecol Econ 37(1):5–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekins P, Simon S, Deutsch L, Folke C, De Groot R (2003) A framework for the practical application of the concepts of critical natural capital and strong sustainability. Ecol Econ 44(2–3):165–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Parliament and European Council (2000) Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

  • Eurostat (2014) Getting messages across using indicators. A handbook based on experiences from assessing Sustainable Development Indicators. Eurostat, Luxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat (2019) Greenhouse gas emissions by source sector. Eurostat, Luxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat (2020) Sustainable development in the European Union. Monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context. Eurostat, Luxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  • Eurostat (2021) Renewable freshwater resources (env_wat_res)

  • Forest Europe (2020) State of Europe’s forests 2020. In: Ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe, Bratislava

  • Forest Europe, UNECE, and FAO (2015) State of Europe’s forests 2015. In: Ministerial conference on the protection of forests in Europe, Madrid

  • Greco S, Ishizaka A, Tasiou M, Torrisi G (2019) On the methodological framework of composite indices: a review of the issues of weighting, aggregation, and robustness. Soc Indic Res 141(1):61–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hametner M, Kostetckaia M (2020) Frontrunners and laggards: how fast are the EU member states progressing towards the sustainable development goals? Ecol Econ 177:106775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Häyhä T, Lucas PL, van Vuuren DP, Cornell SE, Hoff H (2016) From planetary boundaries to national fair shares of the global safe operating space—how can the scales be bridged? Glob Environ Change 40:60–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Schreiberová M, Leeuw FD, Kurfürst P, Smet PD, Schovánková J (2019) European air quality maps for 2016: PM10, PM2.5, Ozone, NO2 and NOx spatial estimates and their uncertainties. ETC/ACM 2018/8. European Topic Centre on Air Pollution and Climate Change Mitigation, Bilthoven

    Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Schreiberová M, Schneider P, Kurfürst P, Schovánková J, Ďoubalová J (2020) European air quality maps for 2017: PM10, PM2.5, Ozone, NO2 and NOx spatial estimates and their uncertainties. ETC/ATNI 2019/9. European Topic Centre on Air pollution, noise and industrial pollution, Kjeller

    Google Scholar 

  • IAEG-SDGs (2019) IAEG-SDGs tier classification for global SDG indicators. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/iaeg-sdgs/tier-classification/. Accessed

  • IPBES (2019) Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC (2014) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • JRC (2019) Your 10-step pocket guideto composite indicators and scoreboards. Joint Research Centre, Ispra

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutlar Joss M, Eeftens M, Gintowt E, Kappeler R, Künzli N (2017) Time to harmonize national ambient air quality standards. Int J Public Health 62(4):453–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lafortune G, Fuller G, Moreno J, Schmidt-Traub G, Kroll C (2018) SDG index and dashboards. Detailed methodological paper. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumayer E (2003) Weak versus strong sustainability: exploring the limits of two opposing paradigms. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD (2019) Measuring distance to the SDG targets 2019: an assessment of where OECD countries stand. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • OECD and JRC (2008) Handbook on constructing composite indicators: methodology and user guide. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Osipova E, Shadie P, Zwahlen C, Osti M, Shi Y, Kormos C, Bertzky B, Murai M, Van Merm R, Badman T (2017) IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2: a conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage sites. International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Osipova E, Emslie-Smith M, Osti M, Murai M, Åberg U, Shadie P (2020) IUCN World Heritage Outlook 3: a conservation assessment of all natural World Heritage sites. International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ozone Secretariat United Nations Environment Programme (2019) Data centre. Secretariat for The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer

  • Panagos P, Borrelli P, Poesen J, Ballabio C, Lugato E, Meusburger K, Montanarella L, Alewell C (2015) The new assessment of soil loss by water erosion in Europe. Environ Sci Policy 54:438–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panagos P, Ballabio C, Poesen J, Lugato E, Scarpa S, Montanarella L, Borrelli P (2020) A soil erosion indicator for supporting agricultural. Environ Clim Polic Eur Union 12(9):1365

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs J, Schmidt-Traub G, Kroll C, Lafortune G, Fuller G, Woelm F (2020) The Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19. Sustainable Development Report 2020. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Saisana M, Saltelli A, Tarantola S (2005) Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators. J R Stat Soc A Stat Soc 168(2):307–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sicherl P (1973) Time–distance as a dynamic measure of disparities in social and economic development*. Kyklos 26(3):559–575

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sicherl P (2011) New understanding and insights from time-series data based on two generic measures: S-time–distance and S-time-step. Working Paper No 44. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris. OECD Statistics Working Papers

  • Simsek Y, Santika WG, Anisuzzaman M, Urmee T, Bahri PA, Escobar R (2020) An analysis of additional energy requirement to meet the sustainable development goals. J Clean Prod 272:122646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockstrom J, Cornell SE, Fetzer I, Bennett EM, Biggs R, Carpenter SR, de Vries W, de Wit CA, Folke C, Gerten D, Heinke J, Mace GM, Persson LM, Ramanathan V, Reyers B, Sorlin S (2015) Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science 347(6223):1259855

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsyro S, Aas W, Solberg S, Benedictow A, Fagerli H, Scheuschner T (2020) Status of transboundary air pollution in 2018. In: Fagerli H et al (eds) Transboundary particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components. Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • UN Environment (2019) Global Environment Outlook—GEO-6: healthy planet, healthy people. Nairobi. UN Environment

  • UNEP (2020) Emissions gap report 2020. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi

    Google Scholar 

  • Usubiaga-Liaño A, Ekins P (2021a) Time for science-based national targets for environmental sustainability: an assessment of existing metrics and the ESGAP framework. Front Environ Sci 9(524)

  • Usubiaga-Liaño A, Ekins P (2021b) Monitoring the environmental sustainability of countries through the strong environmental sustainability index. Ecol Ind 132:108281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wendling ZA, Emerson JW, de Sherbinin A, Esty DC et al (2020) 2020 Environmental Performance Index. Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2020) Percentage of the population using clean and polluting fuels and technologies for cooking. World Health Organisation, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Thomas Scheusnar (Umweltbundesamt), Panos Panagos (European Commission) and Nihat Zal (European Environment Agency) for sending additional data that was not available online at the time. The authors would also like to thank the staff from the JRC's Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards for providing feedback on earlier versions of the index through the COIN open days.

Funding

AU-L was supported by María de Maeztu excellence accreditation 2018–2022 (Ref. MDM-2017-0714), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/; and by the Basque Government through the BERC 2022–2025 program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London, WC1H 0NN, UK

    Arkaitz Usubiaga-Liaño & Paul Ekins

  2. Basque Centre for Climate Change, Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country, 48940, Leioa, Spain

    Arkaitz Usubiaga-Liaño

Authors
  1. Arkaitz Usubiaga-Liaño
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul Ekins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arkaitz Usubiaga-Liaño.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Handled by Ali Kharrazi, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 949 KB)

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 3.

Table 3 List of SESP indicators and data sources
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Usubiaga-Liaño, A., Ekins, P. Are we on the right path? Measuring progress towards environmental sustainability in European countries. Sustain Sci 18, 755–770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01167-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01167-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation