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Towards the 2030 Agenda: Measuring the Progress of the European Union Countries through the SDGs Achievement Index

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia Rocchi

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy)

  • Elena Ricciolini

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy
    Programa de Doctorado en Economía y Empresa, Department of Business and Economy, University of Malaga, 29016 Malaga, Spain)

  • Gianluca Massei

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy)

  • Luisa Paolotti

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy)

  • Antonio Boggia

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy)

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The success or failure in their implementation largely depends on the national implementation effort, measured within wide and compound indicator frameworks. Due to such complexity, providing a simple but comprehensive view on the progress to achieve the SDGs is a priority. Moreover, the measure of the progress allows the consistency among the different dimensions of sustainable development to be assessed. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the results accomplished by European Union Countries in achieving SDGs. In particular, the paper proposed the SDGs achievement index (SDG-AI), a multicriteria-based index, including six different dimensions and applied to EU countries. The SDG-AI allows the differences across the EU countries to be highlighted, and also assesses the contribution of the different dimensions to the final result. The use of such an index will also be useful to understand the effect of the pandemic on the development.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia Rocchi & Elena Ricciolini & Gianluca Massei & Luisa Paolotti & Antonio Boggia, 2022. "Towards the 2030 Agenda: Measuring the Progress of the European Union Countries through the SDGs Achievement Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3563-:d:773693
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Katerina Zdravkova, 2023. "Personalized Education for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Maria-Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Laura Fabregat-Aibar & Valeria Ferreira & Antonio Terceño, 2024. "One Step Away from 2030: An Assessment of the Progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European Union [A un paso de 2030: Una evaluación del progreso de los Objetivos de Desarrollo S," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(6), pages 1372-1397, December.
    3. Ralph Sonntag & Gerard J. Lewis & Andrzej Raszkowski, 2022. "The Importance of Implementing SDGs by Small and Medium Size Enterprises: Evidence from Germany and Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Elena Ricciolini & Arianna Tiralti & Luisa Paolotti & Lucia Rocchi & Antonio Boggia, 2024. "Sustainable development according to 2030 agenda in European Union countries: Evidence of the enlargement policy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 1894-1912, June.
    5. Pasquale De Toro & Enrico Formato & Nicola Fierro, 2023. "Sustainability Assessments of Peri-Urban Areas: An Evaluation Model for the Territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-32, July.
    6. Piotr M. Bolibok & Bartłomiej Zinczuk & Anna Matras-Bolibok, 2025. "Sustainability Transition in the Visegrád Group: Shared Goals, Different Paths," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-29, February.
    7. Beata Bieszk-Stolorz & Krzysztof Dmytrów, 2023. "Decent Work and Economic Growth in EU Countries—Static and Dynamic Analyses of Sustainable Development Goal 8," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Giovanni Ottomano Palmisano & Lucia Rocchi & Lorenzo Negri & Lea Piscitelli, 2025. "Evaluating the Progress of the EU Countries Towards Implementation of the European Green Deal: A Multiple Criteria Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-29, January.
    9. Oana Vlăduţ & George Eduard Grigore & Dumitru Alexandru Bodislav & Gabriel Ilie Staicu & Raluca Iuliana Georgescu, 2024. "Analysing the Connection between Economic Growth, Conventional Energy, and Renewable Energy: A Comparative Analysis of the Caspian Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-30, January.
    10. Elena Petelos & Danai Antonaki & Erasmia Angelaki & Christos Lemonakis & Garefalakis Alexandros, 2025. "Enhancing Public Health and SDG 3 Through Sustainable Agriculture and Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-17, July.
    11. Marek Walesiak & Grażyna Dehnel, 2024. "Progress on SDG 7 achieved by EU countries in relation to the target year 2030: A multidimensional indicator analysis using dynamic relative taxonomy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21, February.
    12. Marianela Carrillo, 2022. "Measuring Progress towards Sustainability in the European Union within the 2030 Agenda Framework," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, June.
    13. Syed Ali Abbas & Asif Zaman, 2024. "Does digitalisation help achieve (selected) socio‐economic SDGs? Evidence from emerging economies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6088-6103, December.
    14. Michael Bown & Clifton B. Farnsworth & Andrew J. South & Heidi L. Lindsey, 2025. "Assessing the State of Sustainability in the Fortune 100: Corporate Trends in Strategy, Transparency, and Seriousness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-29, October.

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