UK ranks top out of G7 for sustainability in 2023
The UK has been identified as a world leader in sustainability. New research suggests that the UK is ahead of every other G7 country in terms of sustainable performance.
According to the latest 2023 Competitiveness Report published by a global consultancy Eight International, the UK is the second most advanced nation in its Environmental Performance Index, and seventh in its Green Index, thanks to its lower levels of carbon emissions and air pollution.
At the same time, the report notes that the UK is a “world leader in renewables generation, although recent weather changes have impacted recent performance”. Considering these factors, Eight International attributed an index score of 0.72 to the UK for sustainability, a higher score than received by US, Germany and Japan, or any of the world’s seven largest economies. At the same time, it was named as first for sustainability for countries with populations over 25 million.
However, when factoring in countries with smaller populations, that leadership position dwindled slightly. Including countries with populations below 25 million, the UK ranks sixth in terms of sustainability, surpassed by the five Nordic countries of Iceland (first, with a score of 0.80), Sweden and Finland (joint second, 0.77), Norway (0.76) and then Denmark (0.75).
Alexis Karklins-Marchay, general secretary at Eight International and partner at Eight Advisory, commented, "The UK has performed strongly in terms of sustainability this year, particularly when compared to large economic peers such as Germany and France, and this performance has helped it rank relatively high overall in our 2023 Competitiveness Report. Looking ahead, the UK has an ambitious aim to generate 100% of its power from clean sources by 2035 and is also one of the active nations in reforms for climate policy. It is these sorts of ambitious goals that stand out globally and position the UK very favourably."
Recent months have seen criticism mount for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has been accused of backsliding on many of the government’s previous climate commitments. With an election on the horizon in 2023, Sunak has attempted to appeal to Conservative Party base voters by appearing to push green policies down his list of priorities – with his ministers reportedly examining ways to prevent the spread of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, and delaying a ban for the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles that had been due to come into play in 2030.
And while the UK is reportedly “half way on the road to its net zero 2050 goals”, many of its early successes have been low-hanging fruit. The biggest challenges are still to come – and with the government increasingly distancing itself from green policy, a recent study from KPMG warned that the country risks squandering its early reputation as a ‘net zero leader’. The firm’s UK Head of Energy and Natural Resources Simon Virley went as far as to add that “past achievements are no guarantee of future success”.
In that context, news that the UK has been found as a top country for sustainability – and the definitive leader among the G7 – might be more of a cause for concern than celebration. However, Eight International’s research also suggests that some of the UK’s backsliding on some of these fronts – positing ‘business’ against ‘sustainability’ might be misplaced.
The researchers found that “competitiveness and environmental sustainability are not incompatible” – demonstrating that with plotted data points for sustainability of the 43 countries studied in the firm’s report against their overall competitiveness. It clearly demonstrates a strong positive correlation. No country with an environmental index rating of under 0.50 saw the competitiveness of their economy range above a 0.80 score – something which the researchers added “clearly dispels the unsubstantiated claim to overcompensate the need for environmental sustainability by considering economic degrowth.”
