Analysis of environmental issues worldwide: a study from the biplot perspective

Abstract

Environmental issues have been a concern for some time worldwide. The main purpose of this study is to analyse whether there are differences in the scores obtained by a broad sample of countries in the Environmental Performance Index according to the geographic area in which the country is located. We apply the biplot, a statistical technique that provides a graphic representation of multivariate data, combining individuals (in our study, the countries grouped by geographic areas) and variables relating to two sets of environmental indicators included in the Environmental Performance Index (ecosystem services and environmental health). The results emphasise that countries from Africa and, to a lesser extent, Asia, usually focus on ecosystems services, whereas countries from Europe, North America and, to a lower degree, South American countries, tend to focus on environmental health. The analyses also provide us with interesting findings about the existence of five separate groups with clear differences between them (Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, North America); Africa in particular has significant features that make it different from the remaining areas concerning climate change. Our approach uses an innovative statistical technique to analyse countries' environmental performance, so that it can tell us whether countries are more concerned about or undertake greater effort on some issues and it allows us to detect differences according to geographic areas.