Sustainable development and environmental security in the countries of the circumpolar north

Abstract

The article presents a comparative analysis of the sustainable development of eight circumpolar countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the USA, Canada, Denmark, and Iceland. Sustainability is understood as the interdependent development of five spheres of human activity: economic, industrial, social, demographic, innovative-technological, and ecological. Each sphere is assessed in terms of endogenous variables that are influenced by exogenous factors. The demographic sphere is evaluated by population; the social – by the human development index (HDI); economic-industrial – GDP per capita (PPP); environmental – extent of exposure of the population to particulate matter in the atmosphere having a diameter of 2.5 μm; innovative-technological – by high-tech exports. The novelty lies in the analysis of the sustainable development of the respective countries using ADL-modelling. Five interdependent econometric equations are presented along with a method for calculating coefficients. The concept of economic, social and environmental sustainability coefficients is introduced. Each country’s sustainability index was calculated as the geometric mean index of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The results of a comparison of the circumpolar countries according to the sustainable development index are presented. The model can predict the development of each sphere of the respective country’s life-sustaining functions and determine the predicted values of the country’s sustainable development index, as well as to compare the development of countries on sustainable development and environmental safety.