A Novel WENSLO and ALWAS Multicriteria Methodology and Its Application to Green Growth Performance Evaluation

Green growth has managed to gain the interest of scholars and politicians recently since it is focused on the fact that the economic development of countries can take place by respecting and protecting the environment. To sustain green growth, it is critical to determine the current situation of countries in this regard and to identify deficiencies as a result. As such, this study proposes a novel multicriteria decision support tool called Weights by ENvelope and SLOpe (WENSLO) and Aczel-Alsina Weighted ASsessment (ALWAS) to identify the green growth performance of countries. The WENSLO method is introduced to objectively decide the criteria' weight values, whereas the ALWAS method is developed to rank the existing alternatives in a decision-making problem. We display the model introduced via green growth application at the country scale in G7. Concerning the findings, environmental factors are more vital than economic and social dimensions in the green growth of countries, and carbon dioxide emissions, water, and marine protected areas are the foremost factors. We highlighted that in terms of green growth level, Canada comes first, then the U.K., and finally Germany. The results of this research provide specific recommendations to guide authorities of G7 countries on green growth planning. The findings can also shed light on what developing countries need to achieve regarding green growth.