MEASURING LOW CARBON ENERGY, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE OF BRICS

Abstract

Formulating a robust low-carbon strategy has now been critical to achieving sustainable economic development amid broad carbon emissions across the BRIC region thanks to rapid industrialization and international trade growth. Developing such a strategy requires measuring actual sustainability performance from the energy, economy and ecological perspectives in this region. Therefore, this study explores the relationship among BRIC countries’ energy, economic and environmental sustainability performance by applying a common weight data envelopment analysis (DEA)-like composite indicator approach. The indicators encompass a comprehensive, latest, appropriate and applicable set of indicators. The results reveal that China and Brazil outperform against other underlined countries of the region in achieving sustainability with an overall index score of 0.96. India stands in ranking on second with a steady and unchanged score in the region, followed by South Africa and Russia, standing in ranking on fourth and fifth, respectively, in this study. Inclusive scores of both countries indicate the actual and robust possible potential for better sustainability performances in the region. This study proposes a policy by lifting the cross-border trade for renewable energy to achieve long-term environmental sustainability in the BRICS region.