Inequality traps detected in sustainable development goals data

TL;DR

This study investigates the complex interactions between economic inequality and environmental sustainability, revealing the existence of inequality regimes and potential tipping points influenced by corruption, using SDG datasets and ordination analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of SDG data to identify inequality regimes and potential feedback-driven tipping points related to sustainability.

Findings

Confirmed existence of inequality regimes

Preliminary evidence linking corruption to regime shifts

Identified interactions between inequality and environmental impact

Abstract

The relationship between inequality and the biosphere has been hypothesized to mutual dependecies and feedbacks. If that is true, such feedbacks may give rise to inequality regimes and potential tipping points between them. Here we explore synergies and trade-offs between inequality and biosphere-related sustainable development goals. We used the openly available SDG datasets by the World Bank (WB) and United Nations (UN) and applied ordination methods to distill interactions between economic inequality and the environmental impact across countries. Our results confirm the existence of inequality regimes, and we find preliminary evidence that corruption may be a candidate driver of tipping between regimes.