China's improving total environmental quality and environment-economy coordination since 2000: Progress towards sustainable development goals

Abstract

Improving China's total environmental quality is an important means to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. How to quantify the environmental quality evolution progress scientifically, and ensure realizing the goals of fresh air, clean water, soil safety, good ecology, and fine human settlement environment in China is an urgent and significant issue. Here, according to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and China's development characteristics, we construct an integrated environmental quality evaluation index system, comprising 5 dimensions—air environmental quality, water environmental quality, soil environmental quality, ecological environmental quality, and human settlement environmental quality—to measure the progress in achieving the SDGs over the past 20 years. Findings show China has made substantial improvements in environmental quality, with an average growth rate of 2.4% annually, presenting high in southeast and low in northwest. Human settlement environmental quality improved to the largest extent, 6.5% annually, followed by ecological, water, soil, and air environmental quality, with an annual rate of 2.46, 2.45,1.83, and 0.84%, respectively. All regions present an increasing trend in total environment. However, large gaps still existed between diverse regions across China. Furthermore, coordination development level between environment and economy rose constantly across China, and 23 provinces have reached the primary coordination development status. Targeted practical measures are proposed to promote environmental quality improvement. It will provide a policy-related assessment tool to help develop sound development strategies and balance national and local capacities for sustainable development.