The Impact of Environment on Human Development and Sustainable Development in Arab Countries

This study explored the effect of environmental variables on Human Development in Arab countries.

Principal Component Analysis and hierarchical clustering were applied to data from the Human Development Report 2025, while additional data from other sources were used to compare Arab countries' environmental performance.

The Principal Component Analysis clearly shows that rich Gulf countries lose a significant share of their Human Development Index due to planetary pressures (per capita carbon dioxide emissions and per capita material footprint). Additionally, a hierarchical clustering method was also implemented, classifying the 22 Arab countries into 4 groups: Group 1 (Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia), Group 2 (Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen), Group 3 (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and Group 4 (Qatar).

The results obtained by applying Principal Component Analysis and a hierarchical clustering method agree perfectly with the ranking provided by the new Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index introduced by the United Nations Development Programme in 2021. The analysis shows that ranking countries only by their Human Development Index score, while ignoring sustainability and environmental effects, yields a potentially misleading ranking.

The performance of Arab countries was also explored through different environmental indicators, including: the Environmental Sustainability Index, the Human Sustainable Development Index, the Ocean Health Index, the National Sustainable Development Index, the Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index, the Environmental Performance Index, the Sustainable Development Goals Index, and the Climate Change Performance.