Study of the spatio-temporal variation of environmental sustainability at national and provincial levels in China

Abstract

Environmental problems create a significant barrier for China in achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Assessing environmental sustainability is critical for China to meet the SDGs. Few studies, however, have looked into environmental sustainability in China. This research created a systematic and comprehensive environmental sustainability framework in line with the SDGs (SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, SDG 14, SDG 15). From 2010 to 2018, we used a Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) model to assess China's spatio-temporal variation in environmental sustainability at the national and provincial levels. We also evaluated the results with changes to the substitution elasticity value, validating the feasibility of the proposed calculation method. Our results show that the scores of SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 15 experienced an increasing trend, while SDG 14 experienced a decline. China's Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) scores indicate that China's overall environmental sustainability has been improved over time. At the provincial level, the ESI scores of all provinces increased at different levels from 2010 to 2018. The results of this paper may facilitate improvements in environmentally-related SDGs in China's provinces, and help realize China's sustainable development.