Prague, July 19 (CTK) – The Czech Republic is among the world leaders in meeting sustainable development goals (SDG), it ensues from the Index SDG report for 2017, in which the Czechs ended fifth out of 157 countries assessed, gaining 81.9 out of possible 100 points.
The report assessing the situation in 2016 has been provided to CTK by the Association of Social Responsibility, a Czech NGO.
The first four positions went to Scandinavian countries.
Sustainable development goals are outlined by the Agenda 2030 document the U.N. states adopted in 2015.
They focus on 17 areas such as the eradication of poverty, the ensuring of quality education, health care, clean water, economic growth, dignified working conditions and gender equality as well as responsible consumption and the use of clean energy.
The Czech government has already prepared the country’s strategy until 2030 in this respect.
This year’s Index SDG is led by four Scandinavian countries. Sweden finished first, followed by Denmark, Finland and Norway.
The Czechs ended fifth before Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and France.
The Czech Republic’s partners in the Visegrad Four (V4) group of central European post-communist states, or Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, ended 18th with 78 points, 23rd with 76.9 points and 27th with 75.8 points, respectively.
The USA finished 42nd, Russia 62nd and China 71st.
The Czech Republic fares the best in poverty eradication. Last year, it met the monitored criteria at 99.7 percent, the report says.
It fares the worst in promoting innovations, ensuring infrastructure and creating partnerships to attain goals. It met these criteria at about 60 percent.
Other weak points of the Czech Republic are the widespread obesity, a gap yawning between the pay of men and women, a low number of patent applications, an excessive volume of waste and emissions per inhabitant and a failure to fulfil commitments in providing financial aid to developing countries.
On the other hand, the Czechs scored points for a low infant mortality, long life expectancy, an economic growth and low unemployment rate.
rtj/dr/kva
