Africa

Africa has a sustained increase in the social inclusion dimension
score, which can be attributed to a variety of factors including
the many initiatives to improve education and healthcare and
reduce poverty. Some of these include conditional cash transfer
schemes implemented in many countries, the popularity of mobile
money, and malaria prevention initiatives like the distribution of
insecticide-treated bednets. About 450 million malaria deaths were
prevented in sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2015 due to
the distribution of such nets (WHO, 2015), which has contributed
to the rise in the healthcare indicator. The effect of mobile money
schemes can be seen most prominently in the case of Kenya, where
the indicator on fixed internet broadband and mobile cellular
subscriptions has increased rapidly over the past decade. Further,
some studies found that mobile money initiatives in Kenya also
empowered women which were observable in the gender balance
indicators , especially on the account at a financial institution or
mobile-money-service provider. Even low-income nations such as
Somalia and Mali have recorded rapid increases in the score for fixed
internet broadband and mobile cellular subscriptions. Botswana, which is another country that has prioritized inclusive development
in the past years, has also recorded an increase in the social inclusion
indicators, particularly in access to basic services and resources.

The efficient and sustainable resource use dimension has remained
largely consistent across time since efforts for introducing clean
energy have been largely countered by a drive for industrialization.
While many African countries have scores near 100 for the
indicators on material footprint per capita, soil nutrient budget, and
share of freshwater withdrawal, their scores on other indicators
like share of organic agriculture are below 20 for most countries.
In the natural capital protection dimension, a similar narrative
emerges since efforts to conserve biodiversity and forest land
have been resisted by politicians and interest groups who wish to
exploit these resources. While most nations score highly in certain
categories like in forest area to total land area and municipal solid
waste generation, there are mixed results in other categories. For
instance, in the indicator for Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY)
rate due to unsafe water sources, countries such as Niger, Chad,
and the Central African Republic have consistently scored very low
(below 20). In the green economic opportunities dimension, trends are difficult to ascertain in many cases because there were only a
few data available. Generally, African countries perform uniformly
low on most indicators, with some nations like Tunisia and Morocco
outperforming others. The best performance is in the indicator on
adjusted net savings, where many countries score above 70.

Americas

In the Americas, the social inclusion dimension has seen a steady
rise over time, although the developed countries like Canada and
the United States outperform other nations substantially. The rise
in social inclusion can be largely attributed to South and Central
America’s investment in social welfare, like the Bolsa Familia
program in Brazil and Oportunidades in Mexico (Cecchini, 2020).
These two countries have seen a rapid rise in access to basic services,
social protection, and gender balance indicators and a moderate rise
in social equality scores. On the other hand, there has been a slight
decline in the natural capital protection dimension, primarily due to
score decreases in cultural and social value indicators in many of the
Caribbean countries like Antigua, Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas,
and Aruba.

In efficient and sustainable resource use, trends in the Americas
have remained largely stable, as the adoption of renewable energy
has been slow, even in places like the United States and Canada.
All countries perform poorly in indicator on water use efficiency,
with scores below 20. In indicator on material use efficiency, the
Americas perform relatively well, with most countries having high
scores above 80. While the score for soil nutrient budget is near 100
for most countries, the indicator on share of organic agriculture is
very low and remains persistent across time. The trends for green
economic opportunities are more mixed differing from country to
country and on average remaining unchanged over time. Canada
has seen a rise in indicator values for green employment and share
of patent publications in environmental technology. On the other
hand, the indicator on adjusted net savings has a decreasing score
for many countries, although it remains the highest scored category
in this dimension (as also the case in Asia and Africa). The share of
export of environmental goods to total export is the indicator in
which most countries score consistently below 20.

Asia

Asia has also recorded increasing trends in social inclusion and stable
trends across other dimensions. The rise in social inclusion has been
driven by an increase in access to basic services and social protection
categories, as well as modest improvements in gender balance
indicators across most countries. This is because large investments
have been made since the beginning of the 21st century in welfare
programs, with the aim of reducing absolute poverty. Some examples
are sanitation and healthcare programs in Bangladesh and Sri
Lanka, workfare programs in India, and the popularity of cash
transfer programs throughout many developing countries (Berg,
Bhattacharyya, Rajasekhar, & Manjula, 2018; UNICEF & WHO,
2019).

In the dimension of natural capital protection, Asian countries have
not seen an increasing trend towards the sustainability target.
This is primarily due to a large failure in curbing air pollution. India
and China have cities that frequently appear in the top lists of the
most polluted nations. Similarly, cities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and
Mongolia often have dangerous levels of particulate matter (PM)
2.5 levels (UNEP, 2019). In other natural capital indicators including the biodiversity indicators, DALY rate due to unsafe water sources,
and tourism in marine and coastal areas, there are mixed results with
most countries recording stable trends across time. In the efficient
and sustainable resource use dimension, Asia has failed to improve
substantially over the past 15 years, despite large investments in
renewable energy by both India and China. The region’s score is
uniformly poor in the category of water use efficiency, with many
countries scoring between 1 and 10 points. Generally, as with Africa,
Asian countries have not seen an improvement in performance
along the dimension of green economic opportunities and the best
performing category in this dimension is the indicator on adjusted
net savings.

Europe

Europe has recorded an increasing trend across the dimensions
of efficient and sustainable resource use, green economic
opportunities, and social inclusion, which is a positive sign for green
growth transition. Countries such as Germany and the Scandinavian
nations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have encouraged
investments in renewable energy due to which the indicator on
efficient and sustainable energy has seen a rise. Although many
European nations have enacted strict air pollution laws by using
low emissions zones and congestion charging policies (OECD, IEA,
ITF, & NEA, 2015), the air pollution indicator (PM2.5) has seen a fall
from target levels since 2005. Due to this and only stable trend in
biodiversity indicators, the natural capital dimension in Europe has
not substantially changed over time. In the case of social inclusion,
the increased score can be attributed to improvements across all
indicator categories in many of the Eastern European nations like
Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Additionally, gender
balance indicators across most countries have been very close to
target levels since the enactment of policies for equality, such as
mandating equal pay and treatment of women in the workplace
(EIGE, 2020). The green economic opportunities dimension has
also seen an upward trend due to consistent importance given to
the creation of green employment and the focus on sustainable
innovations (Pociovălişteanu, Novo-Corti, Aceleanu, Şerban, &
Grecu, 2015).

Oceania

Oceania shows interesting trends across time, with a steep drop in
natural capital protection and a rise in social inclusion. The drop in
the natural capital protection score is due to a significant decrease in
the environmental quality indicators in New Zealand and Australia.
Cultural and social value indicators have also dropped for places like
Fiji, the Marshall Islands, and Vanuatu. The rise in social inclusion can
be attributed to an increase in access to basic services and resources
across all countries, as well as a moderate increase in scores for the
gender balance category. With respect to efficient and sustainable
resource use, information for water-use efficiency remains limited,
but performance in other categories has been consistent with a
slight increase for most countries in efficient energy use.

Data remains sparse in the dimension of green economic
opportunities but indicates that both Australia and New Zealand
have had declining scores in share of export of environmental
goods to total export and share of green employment in total
manufacturing employment. Fiji has shown a steep increase in green
employment with a score of 85.34 in 2020 (up from 51.6 in 2005),
due to an increase in jobs at tourism resorts and jobs which are
energy and water efficient and sustainable (GGGI, 2019).