Dutch economy lagging behind on sustainability: report

The Netherlands has a clearly above-average resilient, innovative, and inclusive economy. But it scores much more poorly in the field of sustainability, the University of Amsterdam reports based on a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), which the research institute contributed to. The report analyzes global economies based on these four pillars rather than hard growth figures.

The Netherlands scored lower in the field of sustainability due to the government’s extensive support for the fossil fuels sector, the significant emissions of greenhouse gases, and the decline in biodiversity. The Netherlands scored well in investments in sustainable energy, but the score of 50.6 is still only good for the 36th place of the 107 analyzed countries. The Netherlands is consistently in the top ten in the areas of resilience, innovation, and inclusivity.

In general, less developed economies scored better in the field of sustainability because they are much less likely to sacrifice nature at the expense of economic growth. But richer companies like Sweden and Finald show, with their 2nd and 8th places, that richer countries can also score well in the field of sustainability.

Due to, among other things, good retraining and further training, the Netherlands scored well on the resilience pillar, getting 8th place in the world. According to the report, challenges within this criterion are aging and polarization. Our economy is 7th in the world in terms of inclusiveness but is affected by, among other things, the consequences of the housing shortage.

The Netherlands scored best in the field of innovation, getting 6th place. Our country benefits from sound science and the accessibility of the mobile network. According to UvA professor Henk Volberda, points of attention for innovative growth include “the limited availability of knowledge workers and the lack of political vision and stability.”

The new Future Growth Report is the successor to the WEF’s Global Competitive Ranking, which was published until 2019. The report is published in the week the global political and business elite gathers in Davos, Switzerland, for the WEF’s annual meeting.