SEPT. 17, 2020

Chile places first in Latin America in sustainability ranking published by the University of Cambridge

Worldwide, Chile ranked 28th out of 193 in a study led by distinguished economist Jeffrey Sachs. The country even outperformed developed nations like the United States, Australia and Italy.

Chile placed first in Latin America in the 2020 Sustainable Development ranking, led by economist Jeffrey Sachs and published by the University of Cambridge, that analyzes progress by nations with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN's 2030 Agenda.

Chile achieved a total score of 77.4, surpassing the regional average. In Latin America, after Chile came Costa Rica (75.1 points), Uruguay (74.3 points) and Ecuador (74.3 points).

Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt commented, “we are promoting an agenda that allows us to move forward steadily in Chile's transformation towards a low-emission and climate-resilient economy, which improves people's quality of life. While we still have progress to make, this report shows that we are on the right track.”

The Environment Minister recalled that Chile’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), provided by the government in April of this year, reinforces compliance with these indicators. “It included a social pillar of just transition and sustainable development as a structural component of the country's commitments for addressing climate change and simultaneously moving forward on the Sustainable Development Goals,” emphasized Minister Schmidt.

Worldwide, our country ranked 28th out of a total of 193 UN member nations. Chile even outperformed developed nations like the United States, Australia and Italy.

The five best average performances in the country were achieved in SDGs 1, 4, 6, 7 and 13. The latter three (SDG 6 “Clean water and sanitation”, SDG 7 “Affordable and clean energy” and SDG 13 “Climate action”) are strongly related to the environmental dimension.