Czech Republic rated above UK, eighth in EU in fulfilling sustainability goals

Prague, Nov 21 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is eighth among EU member countries in fulfilling sustainability goals, improving mainly in the fight against poverty, but seeing a slight decline in its climate protection measures, according to the latest Europe Sustainable Development Report released on Tuesday.

The report measures each country’s success in achieving the 17 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations organisation.

According to the report, the Czech Republic is in first place among the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, leaving behind even some of the older EU member countries like the UK, Belgium or the Netherlands.

“The report shows that in regards to its approach to sustainable development, the Czech Republic can stand among the most advanced countries of the world. We fulfilling the goals completely in the area of poverty, we are very good at fulfilling water management goals and our results are not bad even in the areas like the sustainability of cities and environmental protection. We can still do more in the fight against climate change, especially due to our high greenhouse gas emissions in energy production,” Deputy Environment Minister Vladislav Smrz said.

The report emphasises environmental protection and the decrease in emissions, but its two other pillars are social and economic development.

Same as last year, the Czech Republic has the lowest number of citizens threatened by poverty among all EU countries. It also reached a high evaluation in the subcategory of the long-term unemployment rate, which is lowest among all EU countries.

The Czech Republic also achieved improvements in the extent of its protected areas, important for the protection of biodiversity, as well as in the high quality of its groundwater.

In the category of fighting against climate change, the report shows a worsening trend, caused mainly by excessive CO2 emissions during energy production.

The report also notes some shortcomings in the health of the Czech population, threatened by excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption. The country also seems to suffer from a worsening obesity issue.

In regards to the education subcategory, the Czech Republic saw its assessment fall due to its worse results in PISA tests and a low share of scientists in the population.

The data used in the report were provided by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index, compiled by a team of authors led by Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs.

The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was ratified in September 2015 and contains 17 different commitments that should lead to specific results by 2030, including the ending of poverty and hunger, ensuring good health and well-being for all at all ages, ensuring quality education and lifelong learning, achieving gender equality, availability of water and sanitation, affordable and reliable energy sources and others, including the taking of climate action by regulating emissions and promoting renewable sources of energy.

The goals were accepted in the Strategic Framework Czech Republic 2030 and the implementation plan of the framework was approved by the government in 2018.