56 countries are evaluated on their ability to achieve sustainable development in this 2000 pilot index. The composite measure assesses national environmental systems, pressures, human vulnerability, response capacity, and global stewardship contributions. It was developed by the World Economic Forum, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Columbia University's CIESIN for the year 2000.
Use Cases
- Benchmarking a nation's environmental system status against its economic peers using the composite index score.
- Analyzing the relationship between national capacity to respond and pressures on environmental systems across different regions.
- Modeling a country's contribution to global environmental stewardship as a function of its economic and policy indicators.
- Correlating human vulnerability to environmental change with specific national demographic or geographic features.
Strengths
- Index covers 56 countries, providing a foundational cross-national comparison.
- Composite measure integrates five distinct conceptual dimensions of sustainability.
Limitations
- Limited to a single year (2000), preventing longitudinal trend analysis.
- Small sample size of 56 nations excludes many countries from the global assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- World Economic Forum, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Columbia University CIESIN.
- Collection Method
- Composite index construction from various national-level environmental, social, and economic indicators.
- Time Range
- 2000
- Freshness
- Data is from 2000 and not updated.
- Geography
- 56 countries globally.