Monitoring the evolution of sustainable development goals in the European Union: a synthetic approach

Esther López-Vizcaíno () and Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez ()
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Esther López-Vizcaíno: IGE–Instituto Galego de Estatística, Complexo Administrativo San Lázaro
Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez: GEN-Universidade de Vigo, Faculty of Business and Tourism, University Campus

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 3, No 90, 7973-8001

Abstract: Abstract This paper aims to monitor status and progress in sustainable development within the European Union. To this end, we select a set of representative indicators of the different objectives of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to elaborate a synthetic indicator allowing for country classification and performance. For this purpose, we propose a procedure that starts applying functional principal component analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the available data and to evaluate the likely loss of original information. Then, the procedure calculates a synthetic indicator for each SDG using the explained variance. Finally, a global indicator is obtained considering that each goal has the same importance. This procedure allows us to obtain a set of synthetic indicators which show the differences between European countries. By doing so, we provide valuable help for policy-making and implementing agencies as far it is possible to identify countries with the best performance, namely Nordic and Eastern European countries.

Keywords: Functional principal component analysis; Sustainable development goals; Synthetic indicators; Europe; Measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04234-5

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