Aggregate indices for identifying environmentally responsible nations: An empirical analysis and comparison

Environmental and sustainable development indicators have proliferated since the Rio Earth Summit. This paper attempts to evaluate five indices developed in recent years: the Sustainable Society Index, Happy Planet Index, Environmentally Responsible Happy Nations Index, Responsibility-Capacity Index and Sustainability Index by Fuzzy Evaluation. These indices aggregate information about environmental and development indicators. A comparison of the empirical values of the indices reveals that they do not provide a consistent picture and that the aggregation methods are subjective and debatable. Nevertheless, they all show that the majority of nations in the world need to re-examine their development policies. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.