How do countries along the Maritime Silk Road perform in sustainable use of natural resources? Progress of natural resources-related SDGs

Abstract

Depletion of natural resources is one of the obstacles for coastal countries along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Assessing the performance in sustainable use of natural resources (SUNR) at the national level is of great significance for MSR countries to meet the SDGs. However, few studies have evaluated the sustainability of MSR countries regarding resource utilization or measured progress against SDGs from the perspective of natural resources. This paper aims to assess national performance in SUNR by proposing an index system based on SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 14 (Life below water), and SDG 15 (Life on land), thereby providing evidence needed for effective resource utilization strategies. Here, the progress of 35 coastal states along the MSR in 2020 is evaluated. Concepts of strong and weak sustainability are introduced, the Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) function and Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) method are used for calculation, and the robustness of the proposed index system is validated by uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Our results show that scores in the weak sustainability scenario are generally higher than those in the strong sustainability scenario. The significant differences in target (SDG) scores between the two sustainability scenarios reveal the uneven performance across indicators (targets). The relatively low scores of MSR countries in Target 6.3, 6.4, 7.2, 14.5, 14.a, 15.1, and 15.6 suggest that governments should take appropriate actions for improvement. In terms of individual SDGs, Croatia and Italy lead all SDGs, whereas Iran and Somalia lag. As for the overall performance in SUNR, the top five performers are Croatia, Italy, Greece, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore, while Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen rank last. The regional ability of SUNR is, in descending order, Europe, Asia, and Africa, related to the economic development level and resource endowment. The proposed index system is also compared with the actual SDG indices in the United Nations' SDGs Reports. The prime reason for the distinct differences in SDG rankings is that the proposed index system considers some critical issues absent in the actual SDG indices. These findings provide a scientific basis for MSR countries to identify their strengths and deficiencies in resource utilization and provide a reference for improving their resource policies to achieve sustainable development.