IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0310089.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What do the sustainable development goals reveal, and are they sufficient for sustainable development?

Author

Listed:
  • Bing Wang
  • Tianchi Chen

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 represent the current perceptions of humans regarding understanding and monitoring development. Achieving all 17 goals simultaneously is unrealistic. Considering the interconnected nature of SDGs, identifying their critical dimensions, goals, indicators, and mutual relationships is necessary. In addition, with increasing reservations about the sustainability of SDGs, it is crucial to explore consistency across different dimensions to ensure policy coherence in maximizing synergies and minimizing trade-offs. Our study employed multiple factor analysis (MFA) and hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) to investigate these issues and analyze the results based on the public value (PV) theory. The results indicated that the Human Development Index (HDI) and gross domestic product per capita (GDPP) constitute the first principal component (PC) and are determinants in differentiating country clusters. However, they contradict environmental indicators such as CO2 emissions per capita and ecological footprint gha per person (EFP) and have low synergy with the Happy Planet Index (HPI). Additionally, the relationships between income level, inequality, and environmental quality correspond to a combined Kuznets curve and an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Moreover, governance capacity has become increasingly crucial in sustainable development, particularly in the capability to prioritize different PVs in a timely and strategic manner. Finally, despite the novelty of EFP and HPI, they cannot reveal the entire development story. SDGs require embracing more such indicators to enrich the value bases of development and achieve a sustainable future.

Suggested Citation

  • Bing Wang & Tianchi Chen, 2024. "What do the sustainable development goals reveal, and are they sufficient for sustainable development?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(11), pages 1-23, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0310089
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310089
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310089&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0310089?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Massey, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals and their Fit with Good Governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(S1), pages 79-85, April.
    2. Luca Papi & Michele Bigoni & Enrico Bracci & Enrico Deidda Gagliardo, 2018. "Measuring public value: a conceptual and applied contribution to the debate," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(7), pages 503-510, November.
    3. Lê, Sébastien & Josse, Julie & Husson, François, 2008. "FactoMineR: An R Package for Multivariate Analysis," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 25(i01).
    4. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    5. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    6. Brijesh Mainali & Jyrki Luukkanen & Semida Silveira & Jari Kaivo-oja, 2018. "Evaluating Synergies and Trade-Offs among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Explorative Analyses of Development Paths in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-25, March.
    7. Henry Kaiser, 1974. "An index of factorial simplicity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 39(1), pages 31-36, March.
    8. Edward B. Barbier & Joanne C. Burgess, 2021. "Institutional Quality, Governance and Progress towards the SDGs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-11, October.
    9. Måns Nilsson & Dave Griggs & Martin Visbeck, 2016. "Policy: Map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7607), pages 320-322, June.
    10. Ahmad, Mahmood & Jiang, Ping & Majeed, Abdul & Umar, Muhammad & Khan, Zeeshan & Muhammad, Sulaman, 2020. "The dynamic impact of natural resources, technological innovations and economic growth on ecological footprint: An advanced panel data estimation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    11. Hong Liu & Celia Lee & Chris Alden, 2022. "The Dynamics of Governance and Sustainable Development Goals in the Global South," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(S1), pages 5-10, April.
    12. Sagar, Ambuj D. & Najam, Adil, 1998. "The human development index: a critical review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 249-264, June.
    13. P. Robert & Y. Escoufier, 1976. "A Unifying Tool for Linear Multivariate Statistical Methods: The RV‐Coefficient," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 25(3), pages 257-265, November.
    14. Jason Hickel, 2019. "The contradiction of the sustainable development goals: Growth versus ecology on a finite planet," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 873-884, September.
    15. Cling, Jean-Pierre & Delecourt, Clément, 2022. "Interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goals," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    16. Bali Swain, Ranjula & Ranganathan, Shyam, 2021. "Modeling interlinkages between sustainable development goals using network analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yizhong Huan & Xufeng Zhu, 2023. "Interactions among sustainable development goal 15 (life on land) and other sustainable development goals: Knowledge for identifying global conservation actions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 321-333, February.
    2. Luisa Marti & Roberto Cervelló‐Royo, 2023. "Disparities in sustainable development goals compliance and their association with country risk," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 3038-3051, August.
    3. Cling, Jean-Pierre & Delecourt, Clément, 2022. "Interlinkages between the Sustainable Development Goals," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    4. Bing Wang & Tianchi Chen, 2022. "Social Progress beyond GDP: A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of GDP and Twelve Alternative Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Edit Kővári & Katalin Formádi & Zsuzsanna Banász, 2023. "The Green Attitude of Four European Capitals of Culture’s Youth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    6. Marcelo Fuentes & Moira Negrete & Sebastián Herrera‐León & Andrzej Kraslawski, 2024. "Links between the actors and mining activities related to the implementation of sustainable development principles," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6763-6787, December.
    7. Yizhong Huan & Lingqing Wang & Mark Burgman & Haitao Li & Yurong Yu & Jianpeng Zhang & Tao Liang, 2022. "A multi‐perspective composite assessment framework for prioritizing targets of sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 833-847, October.
    8. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2021. "Priorities for science to support national implementation of the sustainable development goals: A review of progress and gaps," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 635-652, July.
    9. Dawes, J.H.P., 2022. "SDG interlinkage networks: Analysis, robustness, sensitivities, and hierarchies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Cook, David & Kaji, Takeshi Benjamín & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur, 2023. "An assessment of the scope and comprehensiveness of well-being economy indicator sets: The cases of Iceland, Scotland and New Zealand," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    11. Simona Fiandrino & Francesco Scarpa & Riccardo Torelli, 2022. "Fostering Social Impact Through Corporate Implementation of the SDGs: Transformative Mechanisms Towards Interconnectedness and Inclusiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(4), pages 959-973, November.
    12. Patricia Urban & Markus Hametner, 2022. "The Economy–Environment Nexus: Sustainable Development Goals Interlinkages in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.
    13. Jaemin Song & Chang‐Ho Jang, 2023. "Unpacking the sustainable development goals (SDGs) interlinkages: A semantic network analysis of the SDGs targets," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2784-2796, August.
    14. Wiegant, Daniel & Dewulf, Art & Van Zeben, Josephine, 2024. "Alignment mechanisms to effectively govern the sustainable development goals," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    15. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.
    16. Joyeeta Gupta & Louis Lebel, 0. "Access and allocation in earth system governance: lessons learnt in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    17. Prashamsa Thapa & Brijesh Mainali & Shobhakar Dhakal, 2023. "Focus on Climate Action: What Level of Synergy and Trade-Off Is There between SDG 13; Climate Action and Other SDGs in Nepal?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-32, January.
    18. Malayaranjan Sahoo & Narayan Sethi, 2022. "The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4244-4277, March.
    19. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    20. Flavia Massuga & Marcos Aurélio Larson & Marcos Roberto Kuhl & Sérgio Luis Dias Doliveira, 2024. "The influence of global governance on the sustainable performance of countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(11), pages 28567-28589, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0310089. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.