Drivers of sustainability: Economic vs. Environmental priorities in SDG performance
This article applies SYNERGISE+, an innovative value-based framework designed to support decision-makers in identifying, prioritizing, and evaluating sustainable actions across multiple dimensions. SYNERGISE+ integrates five key dimensions—environmental impact, economic viability, social equity, tec...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Sustainable Futures |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825002072 |
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| Summary: | This article applies SYNERGISE+, an innovative value-based framework designed to support decision-makers in identifying, prioritizing, and evaluating sustainable actions across multiple dimensions. SYNERGISE+ integrates five key dimensions—environmental impact, economic viability, social equity, technical feasibility, and institutional framework—into a comprehensive assessment model. The framework is applied to the UN SDG Indexes for 167 countries and 45 EU cities to uncover the primary drivers behind their sustainable development strategies.The results reveal that 87 % of cities follow the conventional scenario, prioritizing economic growth at the expense of environmental outcomes. In contrast, countries adopt a more balanced approach, with technical and social factors driving their overall SDG scores. Notably, 71 % of countries perform either best or worst in the technical feasibility dimension, positioning it as a key predictor of SDG success. The findings also reveal that high SDG scores may mask limited ambition; even when the environmental impact dimension performs well overall, at the criteria level emission reduction emerges as the weakest-performing criterion, underscoring the urgent need to revise climate indicators and adopt more stringent measures.Notably, the most surprising finding was that the strongest predictor of SDG success was city GDP and country income, underscoring the persistent dominance of economic factors in shaping sustainability outcomes. This highlights the challenge of aligning economic growth with ambitious environmental and social objectives, emphasizing the need for more integrative policy frameworks. |
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| ISSN: | 2666-1888 |