Harmonising indicators to report sustainable development goals and sustainable energy and climate action plan: Systemic analysis of existing regional and city indicators sets

Abstract

Balancing economy, social justice, and environmental protection while achieving decarbonisation and adapting to climate change poses a significant challenge for nations, regions, and cities. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans are widely used plans designed to oversee mitigation and adaptation actions. However, despite the common topics addressed by both, the absence of a common framework and the multiplicity of indicators proposed imply an extra effort in their implementation and evaluation, as well as the difficulty of evaluating peer benchmarking. Hence, this review focuses on identifying frequently proposed indicators, highlighting potential links among metrics and establishing a list of potential indicators. The bibliographic analysis conducted allowed the identification of more than 80 sources and 410 different metrics. The study reveals the diversity of approaches chosen to define a set of indicators and underscores the need for a harmonised framework to effectively compare and monitor European regions and cities. Moreover, thanks to this study, a list of potential indicators and the methodology for populating them was established, allowing better coherence among the initiatives and a starting point for small regional and local administrations that often struggle with the availability of data and resources.