Progress on SDG 7 achieved by EU countries in relation to the target year 2030: A multidimensional indicator analysis using dynamic relative taxonomy.

In 2015, 193 UN members adopted the resolution "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", which set out 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. The aim of the study is to assess progress towards meeting SDG 7 "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all" by individual EU countries in 2010-2021 and to determine their distance in relation to the target set for 2030. Eurostat monitors and assesses progress towards SDG 7 using seven indicators. These indicators were used to create an aggregate index. In order to limit the impact of the compensation effect on the ranking of EU countries, we applied dynamic relative taxonomy with the geometric mean to create an aggregate measure that takes into account target values for the indicators with adjusted data. The study reveals systematic progress towards reaching the EU's SDG 7 in the period 2010-2021, with differences between individual EU countries clearly decreasing. The smallest distance in relation to the target set for SDG 7 can be observed for Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, and Austria. By far the greatest progress in period 2010-2021 has been achieved by Malta, and significant for Cyprus, Latvia, Belgium, Ireland, and Poland.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Walesiak, Dehnel. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)