The politics of national SDG indicator systems: A comparison of four European countries

• DOI: 10.1007/s13280-022-01809-w
• Publication Date: 2023-02-11T16:04:17Z
• Authors: Robert Lepenies; Leonie Büttner; Ilona Bärlund; Kurt Jax; Jari Lyytimäki; Anders Branth Ped...; Helle Ørsted Nielsen; Claire Mosoni; Raoul Mille; Gerard Payen; Didier Richard
• Keywords: Europe; Policy; 13. Climate action; Politics; 11. Sustainability; 0211 other engineering and technologies; 02 engineering and technology; Sustainable Development; Goals; Tackling Risks Through the Sustainable Development Goals; 12. Responsible consumption

AbstractThe sustainable development goals (SDGs) constitute an ambitious comprehensive global framework including monitoring mechanisms and indicators to evaluate progress towards precise targets of sustainable development. Most European countries have adapted their national sustainability indicator systems to conform to the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, introducing new indicators and monitoring frameworks and governance processes in which these are embedded. What do we know about the political processes and struggles of implementing this important global framework? How does the politics of indicators differ in national contexts? We propose a classification of national indicator systems along dimensions of indicator selection, appraisal landscape, participatory nature, and political communication. We empirically explore these dimensions for four European national sustainability indicator systems through a comparative analysis based on national policy documents, indicator databases, and web portals as well as inputs from workshops and expert interviews. Given the considerable variation with respect to the trajectory of national sustainability indicator systems, we posit that these differences correspond to different national interpretations of sustainability.