Global Commons Stewardship Index contrasts how countries impact the environment at home and abroad
Inaugural launch of the Index provides a scorecard for 100 countries on how well they are impacting the Global Commons both within their borders and through imported goods and services.
Scientific evidence is clear: unsustainable resource use, destruction of nature, and pollution are changing the climate and other critical Earth systems. By damaging the Global Commons, humanity has the power to undermine life on earth as we have known it for millennia. Major and rapid transformations of energy, production, and consumption systems require data and metrics to guide better policies.
The Global Commons Stewardship (GCS) Index is a composite of the latest breakthroughs in sustainability indicators, focusing attention on how countries are affecting the Global Commons both within their borders and through impacts embodied in trade and consumption (so-called “international spillovers”). The Index aims to inform actions to achieve major international agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity. This Index is the successor to the Pilot GCS Index , which was released at the 2020 Tokyo Forum.
In its inaugural report, the 2021 GCS Index provides scores for 100 entities: 99 countries and the European Union (EU27). The organization of the Index is structured around two major pillars: domestic impacts and international spillovers. There are six impact categories: Aerosols, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, Terrestrial Biodiversity Loss, Marine Biodiversity Loss, Nutrient Cycle disruptions, and Water Cycle disruptions. This year’s edition includes 33 indicators using data from official sources and scientific research. Scores and dashboards are presented in proportional terms that allow comparison across countries with very different sizes, usually in per capita units, and also in absolute terms to identify which countries are having the greatest absolute impacts on the Global Commons. Results presented this year are based on data collected largely pre-COVID-19.
This year’s GCS Index generates five key findings:
- Major transformations are urgently needed in all countries to address negative impacts on the Global Commons generated by unsustainable production and consumption. No country obtains a perfect score, and based on the extrapolation of annual growth rates over the past five years, the pace of progress is too slow. Beyond rhetoric and pledges, it is urgent to act now to mobilize the international policy response and financing needed to protect the Global Commons.
- Rich countries generate the largest share of the international spillovers that need to be addressed. Trade is an important source of income and prosperity in many countries, yet unsustainable supply chains also drive environmental degradation such as deforestation, rising GHG emissions, and other adverse effects.
- Ambitious actions to protect and restore the Global Commons domestically and internationally must go hand-in-hand with efforts to improve living standards everywhere. The GCS Index focuses on measuring countries’ impacts on the Global Commons and calls for transformation of the energy, production, and consumption systems consistent with the requirements for a sustainable global economy. Such transformations can only be achieved if they also support improved living standards, including for the most vulnerable groups, in developed and developing countries alike. Border adjustment mechanisms and other measures to strengthen policy coherence must be accompanied by long-term financing and technical coöperation to support environmental, economic, and social progress in developing countries and promote a “just transition” domestically and internationally. The new Just Transition for South Africa partnership announced at COP26, whereby the UK, United States, France, Germany, and the EU promised $8.5 billion to help South Africa shift from its current dependence on fossil fuels to a clean and renewable electricity system, might lead the way for new forms of coöperation between developed and developing countries.
- G20 countries bear a special responsibility in reforming the governance of the Global Commons. G20 countries include about 63% of the world’s population and 87% of gross world output. In absolute terms, G20 countries generate most of the negative impacts on the Global Commons both domestically and internationally. These countries bear a special responsibility in addressing negative impacts on the Global Commons nationally through ambitious policies and investments and internationally through financial mechanisms and technical coöperation to support the sustainability transition in poorer countries and adaptation in countries that are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.
- Persistent data gaps and limitations should be addressed for more real-time and forward-looking monitoring of countries’ impacts on the Global Commons. We find four priorities for the global research agenda on monitoring environmental impacts: (1) more comprehensive and timely data to assess impacts embodied into international supply chains; (2) estimates of physical flows of pollutants in air and water (not covered in this year’s GCS Index); (3) tools for tracking key policies and their projected impacts to gauge countries’ ambition and efforts to address domestic and spillover impacts on the Global Commons; and (4) more granular assessments looking at impacts embodied in specific supply chains and commodities to inform the governance and alignment of key sectors, industries, and businesses with the SDGs and Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The Global Commons Stewardship Index is a collaboration between the SDSN, the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and the Center for Global Commons at the University of Tokyo. We gratefully acknowledge financial support for the Index from the University of Tokyo.
Read the full report. Contact us at GCSIndex@unsdsn.org.
About SDSN:
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. It mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. SDSN works closely with United Nations agencies, multilateral financing institutions, the private sector, and civil society.
About the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy:
The Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, a joint undertaking between Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, advances fresh thinking and analytically rigorous approaches to environmental decision-making across disciplines, sectors, and boundaries. In addition to its research activities, the center aims to serve as a locus for connection and collaboration by all members of the Yale University community who are interested in environmental law and policy issues. The center supports a wide-ranging program of teaching, research, and outreach on local, regional, national, and global pollution control and natural resource management issues. These efforts involve faculty, staff, and student collaboration and are aimed at shaping academic thinking and policymaking in the public, private, and NGO sectors.
