Environmental Protection In The Context Of Sustainable Development. Comparative Analysis Across Eu Countries

The protection of the environment is an important topic in these days and is given a special attention at national and international level. The quality of the environment has effects that propagate at both economic and social levels, putting its mark on the state of health and lifestyle of present and future generations. The aim of the paper is to verify whether the implementation of environmental protection measures led to the improvement of the economic and social climate. The variables used are composite indicators developed for the three components of sustainable development, such as the Environmental Wellbeing, the Economic Wellbeing, and the Human Wellbeing. In order to capture more analytically the relationship between the environmental component and the other two components of sustainable development, in the paper are analysed also the indicators that compose the aggregate indices. The applied methods are cluster analysis and regression analysis. The analysis is performed at the level of the 28 EU countries, in 2008 compared to 2016. The result of the comparative analysis show that the quality of the environment is negative correlated with the economic and social climate, in 2008 and 2016. The aggregated indicators for economic and social components registered significant increases in 2016 compared to 2008 and the corresponding indicator for the economic component decreased. The econometric models identified have highlighted the importance of good governance and economic growth policies in implementing environmental policies.