Thread by @jasonhickel

I'm excited to announce the latest release of the Sustainable Development Index, now with data through 2019. Costa Rica tops the list! sustainabledevelopmentindex.org

Rich countries continue to perform poorly, with dangerously high levels of resource use and emissions. Sadly the Nordic countries also fall toward the bottom. aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/…

Middle-income countries that have strong public provisioning systems (specifically for healthcare and education) tend to perform best. This model allows countries to deliver relatively high levels of human welfare with relatively low levels of resource use.

But while several countries cross 0.8 on the index, no countries reach 0.9 or above. Even the best performers still need significant improvement.

Note that emissions and resource use are reckoned in consumption-based terms. Thanks to @huzaifazoom for his work on the data management and coding.

Here is the original argument and rationale for the SDI: sciencedirect.com/science/articl… (and here is a free PDF: jasonhickel.org/s/Hickel-The-S…)