"The Impact of Environment on Human Development and Sustainable Development in Arab Countries," was carried out by Abdesslam Boutayeb, Wiam Boutayeb, and Mohamed E.N. Lamlili in The Open Environmental Research Journal.
The study explores the relationship between human development and environmental factors in 22 Arab countries. The researchers utilized data from the Human Development Report (HDR) 2025 and performed a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering to identify trends and patterns between six variables: life expectancy, expected and mean years of schooling, income per capita, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as well as material footprint per capita.
Human Development Index: Balancing Socioeconomic and Environmental Factors
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) publishes the HDR annually, which includes the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI aims to rank countries based on selected human development indicators, namely, a long and healthy life, education, and a decent standard of living. The HDI score is a composite index that summarizes the level and quality of life in each country, which serves as a critical benchmark for assessing national development and planning.
The HDI ranks countries based on their gross domestic product (GDP), level of education, and health care, which are important components of human development, but it does not account for planetary pressures caused by economic activities.
The Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) is an adjustment to HDI that considers two planetary pressures: carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint per capita. The UNDP introduced the experimental indicator to reflect the impact of human development on the environment.
The article reports that most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have the highest values of carbon emissions and material footprint per capita, which significantly affect the planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI). For instance, Qatar had the highest HDI score of 0.886 but the lowest PHDI of 0.276, which is 68.8% lower than its HDI. The country’s emissions per capita equal 42.6 tonnes of CO2, whereas its material footprint is as high as 74.1 tonnes per person. Similar results hold for other GCC countries, Kuwait, UAE, and Oman, which have high HDI scores but relatively low PHDI scores. At the same time, adjusting HDI for planetary pressures does not remove the achievements of these countries in terms of health, education, income, and overall level of development. Nevertheless, it reflects the fact that the most developed countries tend to put a significant burden on the environment, which is why researchers and policymakers should pay special attention to the PHDI indicator when studying these countries’ development.
Country Groups Based on Similarities in Socioeconomic and Environmental Indicators
The results of the study reveal that there is a particular interrelation between the key indicators of socioeconomic development. The first two principal components account for over 90% of variance, which makes it possible to classify countries into groups based on their HDI scores as well as environmental performance. Particular countries were clustered into four groups, which differ in terms of the level of social development and the impact of economic activities on the environment.
Group 1 includes Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. These countries had moderate levels of HDI and relatively low emissions and material print. Group 2 consists of Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, which had low HDI scores and low emissions per capita as well. However, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, which comprise Group 3, had high levels of HDI, income, education, and health care but significant environmental footprints. Finally, Qatar formed a separate group because of its exceptionally high HDI and environmental impact.
Consistent with the findings of the HDI/PHDI analysis, the results of the cluster analysis demonstrate that Qatar has the lowest planetary pressures-adjusted HDI score among all Arab countries followed by other GCC countries, Kuwait, and Oman. More specifically, the study reports that the PHDI of Sudan (0.498), Yemen (0.465), and Somalia (0.396) is significantly higher than that of Qatar (0.276).
The findings suggest that the environmental burden is not spread evenly among the Gulf states since, apart from Qatar, other GCC countries have much lower CO2 emissions and material footprints per capita on average. Indeed, the authors of the study observe that the six GCC countries had over twice higher CO2 emissions per capita than the other 16 Arab countries on average. Meanwhile, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, and Oman had over twice higher material print than other countries on average.
Environmental Performance Analysis of Arab Countries Underlining Similarities and Sustainability Challenges
Among other environmental performance indicators used for comparison, including the Environmental Performance Index, Sustainable Development Goals Index, Ocean Health Index, and Climate Change Performance Index, the authors give the most attention to the latter. They report that most Arab countries face similar environmental challenges, including water stress, air pollution, waste management, biodiversity loss, and insufficient transition to clean energy. Nevertheless, each country has its environmental challenges, which should be taken into consideration when designing appropriate policies.
The authors highlight that Morocco has the best practices regarding climate change with respect to other Arab countries. According to the Climate Change Performance Index 2026, Morocco occupies the sixth place among all countries in the world, which means that it is one of the most sustainable nations in the world. The Climate Change Performance Index evaluates countries based on four main indicators: greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use, and policies.
Morocco’s performance is particularly impressive given the country’s projected development plans for future decades. According to the authors, the nation aims to achieve the highest level of renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030 (52%) and up to 75% by 2050.
Environmental Assessment of Arab State’s Development: Implications for Human Development Indices
The findings of the study demonstrate the importance of analyzing different environmental performance indicators to gain an understanding of the trends and patterns of biogeophysical processes affecting environmental sustainability. Moreover, the research provides valuable insights into the environmental performance of individual Arab countries, which allow these nations to design effective environmental policies adjusted to their specific needs and challenges. It is also essential to note that the paper reveals the limitations of using the HDI as a measure of the level of national development. Specifically, the authors report that HDI scores of individual countries may significantly differ depending on the methodologies used to determine the level of development.
The main limitation of the HDI is that it does not account for the fact that different countries use different combinations of inputs to produce the same level of economic, social, and human development. In other words, the same level of HDI may represent different levels of development for different countries because of their access to resources and opportunities. The authors conclude that the PHDI score is an essential addition to the HDI when studying the level of development of individual countries, especially in the Arab region. Their findings confirm that HDI scores of the GCC countries, particularly Qatar, are disproportionately high compared to their PHDI scores. Therefore, policymakers should pay attention not only to the country’s current level of development and welfare but also to the environmental sustainability of economic activities.
The authors conclude that future research should develop a regional composite indicator of sustainable development that takes inequality and environmental damage into consideration. This way, the researchers will build upon their findings concerning the sustainability of human development in the Arab countries. In particular, they will incorporate the analyses of the environmental impact of economic activities as well as the implications of inequality for human development in individual countries. The findings will contribute to the understanding of how the countries can achieve not only high levels of economic and social development but also maintain environmental sustainability and address inequality.
Article title: The Impact of Environment on Human Development and Sustainable Development in Arab Countries
DOI: 10.2174/0125902776480152260706092422
Read the published article here: https://bit.ly/468TuOQ
The Open Environmental Research Journal
10.2174/0125902776480152260706092422
The Impact of Environment on Human Development and Sustainable Development in Arab Countries