The Economy–Environment Nexus: Sustainable Development Goals Interlinkages in Austria

Patricia Urban and Markus Hametner ()
Additional contact information
Patricia Urban: Institute for Managing Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Markus Hametner: Institute for Managing Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1020 Vienna, Austria

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: As an “integrated” agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) acknowledge the interwoven nature of social and ecological systems. However, trade-offs between socio-economic activities and environmental preservation put the implementation of the SDGs at risk. The purpose of the present study is to uncover such trade-offs, by analysing interlinkages between economic and environmental SDGs in the Austrian context. We applied a mixed-methods approach, combining Spearman’s correlation analysis with expert judgement. Our results reveal that increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (SDG 8) in Austria is accompanied by rising material consumption (SDG 12) and environmental pressures from agricultural production (SDG 2), which in turn has an impact on land ecosystems (SDG 15). We also detect synergies within the economy–environment nexus, such as of protected areas (SDG 15) and organic farming (SDG 2) with water quality (SDG 6). We conclude that in the face of climate change and ecological degradation, decision-makers need to take into account interlinkages between economic and environmental SDGs. When economic aspirations are in contrast with the preservation of the ecological foundations our societies depend upon, it is crucial that environmental goals receive more attention than they previously have.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals; sustainable development; 2030 Agenda; interlinkages; synergies; trade-offs; economy–environment nexus; Austria; correlation analysis; expert judgement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12281/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12281/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12281-:d:926927

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().