Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Croatia.
Over the course of the 20th century, Croatia has become visibly hotter and drier. It released a report in 2008 outlining the risks imposed by climate change on the country’s future and how it can participate in mitigating them.
The report, named “A Climate for Change: Climate change and its impacts on society and economy in Croatia” was the first of its kind for the balkan nation. Many aspects of the economy could suffer from the projected heat and drought, including agriculture and the predominant tourism industry, which generate over 10% of the GDP and relies on summer influx. Another big concern is sea level rise. Beaches, cities and critical infrastructure could become inoperable in the next few decades depending on how quickly we can curb emissions.
Well aware of its vulnerability, Croatia submitted its nationally determined contribution (NDC) as part of the EU bloc under the Paris Agreement in 2016. On one hand, the country is not yet fully developed, and anticipated growth will come with increased emissions. On the other, it has much room for progress in improving energy efficiency, and can benefit from external help to improve quality of life for its citizens while ensuring a sustainable future.
- Croatia’s big tourism industry, coastal zones and agriculture will all suffer from climate change.
- It is bound to the EU’s 2030 Climate Target Plan to reduce emissions to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.
- Its country-specific pledge includes a change in per-capita emissions from 2010 to 2030 of +3% (versus what would have been a larger increase)
* Our Energy ranking considers emission intensity (units of energy per unit of GDP). When one or both are low enough to make their influence negligible on a global scale, the country is left out of the ranking.
Global Sustainability Main Page.
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
