Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability

Markus Hametner

Ecological Economics, 2022, vol. 199, issue C

Abstract: Science is increasingly warning that the Earth, as a result of human activity, is currently on a trajectory towards environmental collapse. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by UN member states in 2015 as a means to reconcile human activity with planetary boundaries, allowing humanity to thrive while safeguarding Earth's life support. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the SDGs so far have lived up to their promise. Using Eurostat's SDG indicator set, the study calculates temporal progress measures of socioeconomic development and environmental sustainability for the European Union (EU) member states. To validate the findings, the two progress measures are compared with changes in the human development index (HDI) and the ecological footprint (EF). The study's results show that over the past five years of available data, most EU member states have seen socioeconomic progress combined with environmental degradation. The trends in the HDI and the EF corroborate this finding, suggesting that the trade-off between socioeconomic activity and environmental preservation continues to exist. SDG implementation should consequently put a stronger focus on the environmental dimension, to ensure that the pursuit of the 2030 Agenda's socioeconomic objectives does not undermine the ecosystem services humanity depends on.

Keywords: Sustainable development goals; Sustainability indicators; Composite index; Measuring progress; Socioeconomic Development; Environmental Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:199:y:2022:i:c:s0921800922001525

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107490

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