Prospects for Global Sustainable Development Through Integrating the Environmental Impacts of Economic Activities

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Sep 28

PMID 39341803

Authors

Siqi Han

Chunding Li

Mengyu Li

Manfred Lenzen

Xiuzhi Chen

Yuqian Zhang

Mo Li

Tuo Yin

Yingjie Li

Juan Li

Jianguo Liu

Yunkai Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Human economic activities drive the production and consumption of goods and services, contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the extent of economic growth's influence on the SDGs remains unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, here, we quantified the environmental effects of economic activities and explored correlations between environmental effect and achieving SDGs. We developed six Environmental Footprint Indices, with a higher score indicating better efficiency or lower burden. Here we show that the various Environmental Footprint Indices had synergistic and trade-off effects on most SDG targets indices, but the synergistic effects prevailed. As income increased, the correlation between Environmental Footprint Indices and SDG target indices gradually strengthened. improved production efficiency and consumption changes notably advance SDGs, especially in low-income group countries. Our work provides scientific insights into the impact and prospects of environmental regulation required for achieving the SDGs by 2030.

References

Wiedmann T, Schandl H, Lenzen M, Moran D, Suh S, West J . The material footprint of nations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013; 112(20):6271-6. PMC: 4443380. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1220362110. View

Kanemoto K, Moran D, Hertwich E . Mapping the Carbon Footprint of Nations. Environ Sci Technol. 2016; 50(19):10512-10517. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b03227. View

Wiedmann T, Allen C . City footprints and SDGs provide untapped potential for assessing city sustainability. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):3758. PMC: 8213854. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23968-2. View

Malik A, Lan J, Lenzen M . Trends in Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 1990 to 2010. Environ Sci Technol. 2016; 50(9):4722-30. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b06162. View

Hertwich E, Peters G . Carbon footprint of nations: a global, trade-linked analysis. Environ Sci Technol. 2009; 43(16):6414-20. DOI: 10.1021/es803496a. View

Alcamo J, Thompson J, Alexander A, Antoniades A, Delabre I, Dolley J . Analysing interactions among the sustainable development goals: findings and emerging issues from local and global studies. Sustain Sci. 2020; 15(6):1561-1572. PMC: 7592180. DOI: 10.1007/s11625-020-00875-x. View

Xu Z, Chau S, Chen X, Zhang J, Li Y, Dietz T . Assessing progress towards sustainable development over space and time. Nature. 2020; 577(7788):74-78. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1846-3. View

Xiao H, Bao S, Ren J, Xu Z, Xue S, Liu J . Global transboundary synergies and trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals from an integrated sustainability perspective. Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):500. PMC: 10786910. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44679-w. View

Arrow K, Bolin B, Costanza R, Dasgupta P, Folke C, Holling C . Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment. Science. 1995; 268(5210):520-1. DOI: 10.1126/science.268.5210.520. View

10.

Gu B, Leach A, Ma L, Galloway J, Chang S, Ge Y . Nitrogen footprint in China: food, energy, and nonfood goods. Environ Sci Technol. 2013; 47(16):9217-24. DOI: 10.1021/es401344h. View

11.

Hoekstra A, Wiedmann T . Humanity's unsustainable environmental footprint. Science. 2014; 344(6188):1114-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.1248365. View

12.

Keysser L, Lenzen M . 1.5 °C degrowth scenarios suggest the need for new mitigation pathways. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):2676. PMC: 8113441. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22884-9. View

13.

Zhao Z, Cai M, Wang F, Winkler J, Connor T, Chung M . Synergies and tradeoffs among Sustainable Development Goals across boundaries in a metacoupled world. Sci Total Environ. 2020; 751:141749. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141749. View

14.

Yang Y, Qu S, Cai B, Liang S, Wang Z, Wang J . Mapping global carbon footprint in China. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):2237. PMC: 7206023. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15883-9. View

15.

Lenzen M, Kanemoto K, Moran D, Geschke A . Mapping the structure of the world economy. Environ Sci Technol. 2012; 46(15):8374-81. DOI: 10.1021/es300171x. View

16.

Vanham D, Leip A, Galli A, Kastner T, Bruckner M, Uwizeye A . Environmental footprint family to address local to planetary sustainability and deliver on the SDGs. Sci Total Environ. 2019; 693:133642. PMC: 6853168. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133642. View

17.

Hiranuma N, Park H, Baek M, Anishchenko I, Dauparas J, Baker D . Improved protein structure refinement guided by deep learning based accuracy estimation. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):1340. PMC: 7910447. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21511-x. View

18.

Nilsson M, Griggs D, Visbeck M . Policy: Map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature. 2016; 534(7607):320-2. DOI: 10.1038/534320a. View

19.

Manisalidis I, Stavropoulou E, Stavropoulos A, Bezirtzoglou E . Environmental and Health Impacts of Air Pollution: A Review. Front Public Health. 2020; 8:14. PMC: 7044178. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00014. View

20.

Hoekstra A, Mekonnen M . The water footprint of humanity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; 109(9):3232-7. PMC: 3295316. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1109936109. View