scholarly journals Environmental risks and sustainable development indicators: determinants of impact

2020 ◽  
Vol 185 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Sushchenko ◽  
◽  
Ievgen Volkovskyi ◽  
Viktor Fedosov ◽  
Nadiya Ryazanova ◽  
...  

The concept of sustainable development brought new constraints for the old-fashioned business models. At the same time, it created new opportunities for those who have a forward-looking strategy and strive to overcome «the limits to growth», in other words, to ensure a long-term blended value creation with economic and non-economic benefits. There are numerous sets of the sustainable development indicators and indices, but the weights of each particular component are different and need further clarification. Nowadays, the environmental risks in general and climate-related in particular are priced (e.g. environmental taxes) and have a strong impact on the social and economic relations by creating negative and positive externalities for our daily life. For this reason, economic agents are forced to become sustainable to the non-financial risks through switching to the new environmental and social business models. For this reason, better sustainable development indicators are crucial for an improved management of the non-financial risks and sustainable blended value creation. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine the role of environmental risks in shaping sustainable development conditions on the macrolevel and to elaborate the ways for a better management of the non-financial risks (Environmental, Social and Governance - ESG). For this purpose, the impact of the most important environmental risks on the main economic and social indicators has been examined (e.g. Human Development Index and GDP per capita). Such an approach allowed us to identify the extent to which specific environmental factors influencing social and economic development can reshape the sustainable development conditions. In course of research, two sets of countries have been singled out to verify statistical significance of elaborated models. To achieve this goal, the authors have split an available dataset into two groups: EU and non-EU countries. The reason behind it is the fact that EU countries are among the leaders in the area of sustainable development and have already undertaken related environmental improvements in the last decades. Moreover, the above-mentioned countries are continuing such successful pathways today and with the new European Green Deal could go even far beyond this frontier. The results of current research suggest that existing indicators cannot fully encompass all the aspects of sustainable development and should be revised. Such findings relate both to the composition of the indicators and the weights attributed to each particular component. The application of regression analysis showed that such factors as water and air quality and biodiversity have the strongest explanatory power - 67% of the fluctuations in GDP per capita and 87% in case of HDI. The R -squared is ranging from 0.7 to 0.8 in both cases and confirms consistency of the elaborated models. To verify the results achieved, the similar models have been prepared only for the EU countries. As a result, all independent variables demonstrated the same significant impact on GDP per capita also for the EU countries. However, in this case the R -squared is only 0.27 due to the fact that ESG indicators within the EU area are rather homogenous. The impact of environmental factors on the level of HDI for the EU countries is much stronger comparing to GDP per capita. An overall explanatory power of the model for the EU countries exceeds 0.45 (R -squared). The most influential factor is the quality of water resources. Other important independent variables in the model for the EU member states are biodiversity and air quality. The authors argue that it is necessary to incorporate the above-mentioned environmental factors into the updated version of the Human Development Index as the most appropriate indicators of sustainable development. Consequently, the weights of the components should be recalculated to improve management of the non-financial risks on macrolevel, facilitating the blended value creation process.

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Iwona Bąk ◽  
Katarzyna Cheba

Consistent socio-economic development is one of the strategic goals of the European Union (EU) functioning. The research results presented in the literature focus mainly on the comparison of the position occupied by certain EU countries with respect to other member countries. However, it is also important to address the issue of the EU consistency and to assess the extent of development disparities between individual member countries. The aim of the study is a comparative analysis of the disproportions between the EU countries in the area of sustainable development. Sustainable development indicators for the years 2008—2014 available in the Eurostat database were used in the paper. A dynamic version of the relative taxonomy proposed by Stanisław Wydymus was used in the study. The analysis showed that there are strong disproportions in the development of the EU member countries — it turned out that in every geographical region of Europe there are countries with high positions in the ranking, as well as those with low positions. The leader in the whole analysed period was Sweden, with the last place taken by Malta.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7650
Author(s):  
Astrida Miceikienė ◽  
Kristina Gesevičienė ◽  
Daiva Rimkuvienė

The reduction of GHG emissions is one of the priorities of the EU countries. The majority of studies show that financial support and environmental taxes are one of the most effective measures for the mitigation of the negative consequences of climate change. The EU countries employ different environmental support measures and environmental taxes to reduce GHG emissions. There is a shortage of new studies on these measures. The aim of the present study is to compare the effectiveness of the environmental support measures of the EU countries with the effectiveness of environmental taxes in relation to the reduction of GHG emissions. This study is characterized by the broad scope of its data analysis and its systematic approach to the EU’s environmental policy measures. An empirical study was performed for the EU countries with the aim of addressing this research problem and substantiating theoretical insights. A total of 27 EU member states from 2009 to 2018 were selected as research samples. The research is based on a cause-and-effect relationship, where the factors affecting environmental pollution (environmental taxes and subsidies) are the cause, and GHG emissions are the effect. Statistical research methods were used in the empirical study: descriptive statistics, the Shapiro–Wilk test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), simple regression and cluster analysis. The results show that the older member countries of the EU, which had directed the financial measures of environmental policy towards a reduction in energy consumption, managed to achieve a greater reduction in GHG emissions compared to the countries which had not applied those measures. The Central and Eastern European countries are characterized by lower environmental taxes and lower expenditure allocated to environmental protection. The countries with a higher GDP per capita have greater GHG emissions that the countries with lower GDP per capita. This is associated with greater consumption, waste, and energy consumption. The study conducted gives rise to a discussion regarding data sufficiency in the assessment and forecasting of GHG emissions and their environmental consequences.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Cheba

The purpose of the article is to analyse the uniformity of changes over time concerning sustainable development of the European Union. Such analyses are particularly important as the pursuit of sustainable development of the EU countries is one of its strategic developmental objectives. The informational basis of the study were the sustainable development indicators for the years 2009—2014 published by the Eurostat. Vector calculus was used to examine the uniformity of changes. The results of the analysis confirmed significant differences in, both across regions in Europe and EU member countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6916
Author(s):  
Gitana Dudzevičiūtė ◽  
Svajone Bekesiene ◽  
Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene ◽  
Galina Ševčenko-Kozlovska

As geopolitical instability increases and new threats emerge, a number of countries are increasing their respective allocations for defence expenditure in order to take greater responsibility for their citizens in terms of defending and protecting their values and way of life. Small states such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia must evaluate certain economic, political, and strategic factors when increasing their respective defence expenditure. While they do tend to increase expenditure on national defence matters, budgetary constraints often force them to cut funding in some civilian domains or to increase their borrowing on international markets. Therefore, the security and defence of small states must be addressed in an integrated way, taking into account economic, social, and environmental factors. The aim of this article is to assess the relationships between defence expenditure and sustainable development indicators during the period between 2000 and 2018 in the Baltic states. The authors of this article aimed to determine which sustainable development indicators have a significant impact upon a country’s expenditure when it comes to defence matters. The study was conducted using econometric methods, including Spearman’s correlation analysis and Automatic Linear Modelling (ALM). The research results revealed some differences amongst the Baltic countries. In Lithuania, the employment rate and R&D personnel as a share of the active population demonstrated a significant impact upon defence expenditure. In Latvia, defence expenditure was found to be affected by disposable household income per capita and environmental taxes as a share of total tax revenue. In Estonia, defence expenditure was mainly influenced by disposable household income per capita and energy import dependency. The study’s findings may be used to ensure both the security of the country and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8905
Author(s):  
Carmen Callao ◽  
M. Pilar Latorre ◽  
Margarita Martinez-Núñez

The concept of sustainable development was introduced in Europe by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and was extended to waste management in the Waste Framework Directive. In order to achieve sustainable development, hazardous waste (HW) must be managed safely and in accordance with regulations. This also applies to worldwide HW transport, especially when HW is shipped for disposal. The United Nations, through the Basel Convention, aims to prevent the export of HW from developed countries to developing countries for disposal. In Europe, HW shipments are regulated by Regulation (EC) No. 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and by the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste. Additionally, all HW shipments must be in accordance with two principles contained in the Waste Framework Directive: proximity and self-sufficiency. Using data from 2014 and network analysis methodology, this paper fills the gaps in the scientific literature by looking at how shipments of HW travel for disposal in Europe, how the regulations affect these shipments and how GDP per capita influences the shipment of waste. The results show that countries with a high GDP per capita play an important role in the network (having the highest in-degree) and that the absence of landfill taxes for HW does not influence HW shipments for disposal. Therefore, countries in the EU act in accordance with the proximity and self-sufficiency principles.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Megyesiova ◽  
Vanda Lieskovska

Sustainable development is a key task for governments that should end poverty, ensure prosperity, create better conditions for health, education or social needs. The set of indicators to be monitored for evaluation of successes or failures of the sustainable development varies by intergovernmental organizations like OECD or EU. To discover the status and dynamics of variables which are part of the sustainable development goals of the OECD countries is the main aim of the presented analysis. To measure the convergence of socio-economic indicators the coefficient of variation was used. The Pearson’s correlations coefficient and regression analysis were applied to detect the linear relationship between a pair of variables. The OECD countries were compared not only by using univariate statistical methods but also by applying a multivariate approach. The cluster analysis and principal component analysis were used for a set of indicators to monitor the countries from a wider perspective. The analyzed indicators GDP per capita or real change in GDP per capita belong to variables of economic activity. Variables of life expectancy at birth, standardized death rates for noncommunicable diseases belong to indicators of health. Altogether fifteen selected indicators were used for a multivariate analysis of OECD countries in two periods of time.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Mazurek

Abstract The aim of this article is to compare 2008-2010 recession magnitudes in individual EU countries. For the comparison the recession magnitude scale was used. The strongest recession during the examined period took place in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Greece and Ireland, while the weakest recessions in the EU occurred in France, Malta and Cyprus. Poland and Slovakia were the only two EU countries that didn’t fall into a recession, that’s why they were not included in the study. The main findings of the paper are that EU19’s recession was much smaller than both the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recent Great Recession in the USA. Furthermore, with the use of a linear econometric model it was found that recession magnitudes in EU countries were directly proportional to the countries’ GDP per capita in 2008 and growth prior to recessions, while countries’ economic openness was indirectly proportional to recession magnitudes, all the relationships being statistically significant.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 127-129
Author(s):  
Wim Heijman ◽  
Johan Van Ophem ◽  
Job Van Logtestijn

This research note compares the results of the measurement of the relationship between happiness and GDP in the EU based upon unweighted data with the results based upon weighted data. The data are weighted in order to correct for the different sizes of the populations in the EU countries concerned. The result of the weighing is an even stronger relationship between happiness and GDP per capita than in the case with unweighted data.


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