Ecological modernization is an approach to addressing the global ecological crisis, environmental crisis and resource crisis. Quantifying the progress of international ecological modernization is essential to track global efforts towards sustainable development and guide policy development and implementation. However, systematic methods for assessing progress in ecological modernization are lacking. Here we develop and test systematic methods to quantify progress towards ecological modernization at international levels in 1990-2017.
This study conducts comprehensive quantitative evaluation of ecological modernization in 18 specific construction areas from four aspects: ecological vitality, environmental quality, social development, and coordination degree. Based on the data from the world bank, 117 countries were selected as the overall sample. Taking 1990 as the comparative year of 2017, the international ecological modernization progress index(IEMPI2017) and average annual progress rate were calculated. In addition, this study compared the ecological modernization progress of 117 countries in 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2017.
Results/Conclusions
Our analyses indicate that ecological modernization accelerated in 95 countries and slowed down in 22 countries from 1990 to 2017. Among the four core areas investigated by the IEMPI, 117 countries have achieved good results in ecological vitality and social development, while the construction of environmental quality and coordination degree have become the short board of ecological modernization construction in various countries. 109 countries have made positive progress in the field of ecological vitality, while 76 countries have made negative progress in the field of environmental quality. The current situation of unbalanced development of ecological modernization in the world is quite prominent. Compared with the two stages of 1990-2010 and 2000-2017, there are 13 countries whose ecological modernization has been accelerating continuously, such as the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. 27 countries experiencing deceleration first and then acceleration, such as China, France and Sweden. 48 countries experiencing acceleration first and then deceleration development, such as India, Brazil and Australia. 29 countries with continuous deceleration, such as Switzerland, Germany and Russia. Although the construction speed of ecological modernization in most countries is slowing down, the international level of ecological modernization has gradually improved. All countries should pay more attention to the balanced development of the four fields in the construction of ecological modernization.