The United Nations SDG13 and the EU27 countries performance: A comparative analysis

Abstract This paper evaluates the performance of the European Union 27 (EU-27), its supranational regions, and Member States (MSs) in relation to the Climate Action Sustainable Development Goal (SDG13) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The Alkire–Foster method is used to develop the Multidimensional Climate Action Index (MCAI) framework. Regarding individual MSs’ overall performance, the results show that Sweden (Northern Europe) performs the best and Croatia (Central and Eastern Europe) the worst. In terms of the average overall performance of individual MSs in the EU-27 and its supranational regions, only Western and Northern Europe have satisfactory scores. Moreover, the performances of the various territories differ by target. This territorial heterogeneity illustrates how the SDG13 targets may require different efforts in each territory. The scores for the MCAI group measure depict an even worse picture. Except for Northern Europe, the proportion of MSs with a satisfactory individual overall composite score (H) is lower than their average overall composite score or intensity (A). The two regions with the lowest H scores (Southern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe) also have the lowest A scores and the lowest average GDP per capita.