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Special Issue "Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals"

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nuno Crespo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Business Research Unit (BRU), Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: international economy; health economics; macroeconomics; labor economics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Nádia Simões
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Economics, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: personnel economics; human capital; education; job quality; entrepreneurship; bibliometrics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The definition, in 2015, of the 17 sustainable development goals is a critical milestone in the global agenda for a sustainable world.

The broad objectives established for a better world by 2030 represent a very important incentive to new academic research. This is vital to provide a deeper understanding of the main challenges, and the steps already taken, in this area.

Taking this general context as background, this Special Issue intends to publish high-quality scientific contributions that provide the following:

Ø A survey (literature review) concerning theoretical and/or empirical literature on a specific sustainable development goal;

Ø A bibliometric analysis of the main topics/authors in this area of research;

Ø A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence produced in what concerns a specific sustainable development goal;

Ø Contributions for a more comprehensive/refined/detailed measurement of the results obtained in one or more of the sustainable development goals. This could be directly linked with the targets defined or aim to capture new relevant dimensions;

Ø Comparative evaluations of the levels already achieved in a specific sustainable development goal in the context of a group of countries;

Ø An econometric analysis of the core determinants of performance in regarding one or more sustainable development goals.

References:

Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Ohman, M. C., Shyamsundar, P., Steffen, W., Glaser, G., Kanie, N., & Noble, I. (2013). Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495, 305–307.

Hák, T., Janoušková, S., & Moldan, B. (2016). Sustainable Development Goals: A need for relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, 565-573.

Nilsson, M., Chisholm, E., Griggs, D., Howden-Chapman, P., McCollum, D., Messerli, P., Neumann, B., Stevance, A.-S., Visbeck, M., & Stafford-Smith, M. (2018). Mapping interactions between the sustainable development goals: Lessons learned and ways forward. Sustainability Science, 13, 1489–1503.

Robert, K. W., Parris, T. M., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2005). What is sustainable development? Goals, indicators, values, and practice. Environment: science and policy for sustainable development, 47, 8-21.

Sachs, J. D. (2012). From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. The Lancet, 379, 2206-2211.

Dr. Nuno Crespo
Prof. Nádia Simões
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable development goals
indicators
bibliometrics
survey
econometrics
meta-analysis

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Public Policies on the Sustainable Development Goals through Budget Allocation and Indicators

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Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10583; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410583 - 17 Dec 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1014

Abstract

Measuring the advances performed in the 2030 Agenda and the contribution of public policies remains a key issue. Budgets are acknowledged as one of the most powerful tools made available to administrations to push forward this contribution, and so several initiatives have risen to align budget items and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) performance at all levels. The aim of this paper is to go beyond simple alignment and statistically analyze the interlinkages between budget and SDG achievement data. We have used the Spanish local administrations budget, together with indicators used to measure the 2030 Agenda goals at the same level, and computed a correlation test in order to find where budget allocation has an impact. We have then looked further into the relevant impacts to split them into direct and indirect. The research found ca. 25% of the budget items with relevant statistical links to the SDGs, with the SDGs 11 and 15 being the least impacted and SDGs 1, 4, 7, 8 and 16 the most connected ones. This research aims to set the bases of an evidence-based decision-support tool for a more efficient and sustainable policy design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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Open AccessArticle

How Is Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Measured? Comparing Four Approaches for the EU

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Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7675; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187675 - 17 Sep 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1594

Abstract

Evidence-based policymaking must be rooted in sound data to inform policy priorities, budget allocations, and tracking of progress. This is especially true in the case of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they provide the policy framework that all 193 UN member states have pledged to achieve by 2030. Good data and clear metrics are critical for each country to take stock of where it stands, devise pathways for achieving the goals, and track progress. Current assessments of the EU’s performance on the SDGs, however, tend to reach different findings and policy conclusions on where the priorities for further action lie, which can be confusing for researchers and policymakers. In order to demystify the drivers of such differences and make them transparent, this paper compares and contrasts the results obtained by four SDG monitoring approaches. We identify three main elements that are responsible for most of the differences: (i) the use of pre-defined targets for calculating baseline assessments and countries’ trajectories; (ii) the inclusion of measures that track not only domestic performance, but also the EU’s transboundary impacts on the rest of the world; and (iii) the use of non-official statistics to bridge data gaps, especially for biodiversity goals. This paper concludes that there is not one “correct” way of providing an assessment of whether the EU and EU member states are on track to achieve the goals, but we illustrate how the different results are the outcomes of certain methodological choices. More “forward-looking” policy trackers are needed to assess implementation efforts on key SDG transformations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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Open AccessArticle

Research and Development as a Moderating Variable for Sustainable Economic Performance: The Asian, European, and Kuwaiti Models

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Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7525; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187525 - 11 Sep 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1178

Abstract

The research and development (R&D) expenditure in Kuwait is insufficient to lead to innovation and a knowledge economy. Investment in R&D has been shown to sustain elevated economic performance. The objective of this study is to explore the association between three competing dimensions of R&D indicators that lead to sustainable economic performance within any given country, namely, R&D expenditure, the number of researchers, and the number of patent rights, using time-series data collected over a 20-year period (1996–2016) by the World Bank Group. R&D indicators were compared between high- and middle-income countries including models from Asian (South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia) and European (Finland and Ireland) countries as well as the State of Kuwait. Moreover, a case study describing R&D investments in Kuwait is presented. Overall, the results reveal higher R&D spending, number of researchers, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the Asian and European models. Current R&D expenditure in Kuwait is estimated at 0.08% of GDP (2016), which is significantly lower than the mean of the middle-income countries (1.58%). Furthermore, the number of researchers (per million) in Kuwait (386) is less than half of the mean number of researchers in middle-income countries (775) (2015). Low R&D investments in the State of Kuwait has gradually led to a decreased GDP per capita. Regression analysis shows that GDP per capita can be predicted solely based on the number of researchers (beta = 0.780, R² = 0.608). The number of researchers is the most crucial variable to predict GDP per capita, and the R&D expenditure is a good indicator of the number of researchers. These findings offer invaluable insight into the sustainable development goals (SDG 9). To our knowledge, this paper presents the first application of the effect of R&D on sustainable economic performance with reference to the SDG target 9.5 “Research & Development”. Thus, in order to enhance scientific research (both academic, professional, and industrial), countries need to increase the number of researchers, and these actions are necessary to introduce sustainable growth to GDP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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Open AccessArticle

Non-Financial Information Disclosure in Italian Public Interest Companies: A Sustainability Reporting Perspective

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Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6063; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156063 - 28 Jul 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1157

Abstract

The paper aims at investigating the impact of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 on Italian “public interest entities” both in term of approaches to non-financial disclosure and on business strategies. The analysis focuses on the investigation of the relationships between the 17 SDGs and the set of non-financial information defined in bont the EU Directive 2014/95/EU and the related Italian L.D. n. 254 of 30 December 2016. SDGs has been significantly analysed in the literature, considering the effects on sustainability policies adopted by the States, but little attention has been paid to the policies adopted by companies. The awareness of companies towards the business implication connected to the achievemt of these goals translate into a new conscientious path, in compliance with sustainability standards. In this framework, the paper investigates the entire population of Italian companies subject to the publishing of non-financial information disclosure, with the exclusion of banks and insurance companies. For each company under investigation, two kinds of analysis are presented: (1) firstly, the company’s level of sustainability derived from the company website; (2) the approach in pursuing the 17 SDGs. The overall results are quite comforting in term of companies’ sustainability aptitude. Over the years, Italian public interest entities have implemented active policies linked to the achievement of some specific goals, in compliance with the Italian legislation, although divergences still emerge among the Italian areas, as a result of cultural differences that still exist and affect companies’ approaches to sustainability issues. In this regard, the results of the analysis are interesting for government authorities to regulat the pursuit of sustainability goals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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Open AccessArticle

Inclusive Economic Sustainability: SDGs and Global Inequality

Arno J. van Niekerk

Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5427; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135427 - 06 Jul 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1538

Abstract

In view of the 2020 global health crisis and its repercussions on the global economy, the need to redirect conventional economic thinking towards securing global economic sustainability is most critical. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a significant move in this direction. However, in the past few years, a clearer understanding of inclusive economics and sustainability indicators have progressed our ability to reduce economic exclusion, chiefly represented by global inequality. Collective wellbeing within the “global village” is shaped largely by these avenues/directions, thus presenting the question: can an improved combination of sustainability priorities be identified that would substantially enhance countries’ adoption of the SDGs? New, inclusive paths to economic progress are essential to a world economy in crisis recovery mode. The aim of the paper is to qualitatively identify key indicators from these different directions to, collectively, address some of the most significant drivers of global inequality, thus improving the adoption rate of the SDGs. As its main contribution, the study found that for economic inclusivity to realistically reduce global inequality its full integration into three areas is necessary: business models, public policy and community development. This should also be supported by “social covenants” to facilitate improved SDG adoption by countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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Open AccessCommentary

Regenerative—The New Sustainable?

Leah V. Gibbons

Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5483; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135483 - 07 Jul 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2009

Abstract

Over time, sustainability paradigms have evolved from meeting human needs throughout time to improving human wellbeing and the viability of ecological systems. Regenerative sustainability (RS), the next wave of sustainability, includes and transcends these goals, aiming for thriving living systems in which whole-system health and wellbeing increase continually. A key difference between sustainability paradigms is the thinking underlying them, with regenerative sustainability based on a holistic worldview and paradigm, integrating recent understandings from science and practice, different ways of knowing, and inner and outer dimensions of sustainability necessary for systemic transformation. RS, practiced through regenerative development and design for over 50 years, aligns human consciousness and actions with living systems principles. When this alignment occurs, sustainable development goals are elevated to become regenerative development goals, with living systems principles and characteristics guiding the development of regenerative indicators and strategies made specific to a place through transformational co-creative processes. We should aim for regenerative sustainability because it offers holistic approaches based on how thriving living systems function, addresses the root causes of (un)sustainability, and is inherently more inspiring and motivational. Advancing regenerative sustainability will require fundamental shifts supported by more awareness and education, theoretical and practical development, leadership, empowering communities, and integrating spirituality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Research on Sustainable Development Goals)

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