The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) sixth Europe Sustainable Development Report (ESDR) for 2025 shows persistent ESG challenges across Europe.
The report looks at the progress of EU member states, European Free Trade Agreement countries, candidate countries and the UK on sustainable development goals.
It says there is a slow pace of convergence in SDG outcomes across European countries.
The report also identifies five major challenges:
- Stagnation and even reversal of progress on Leave-No-One-Behind indicators since 2020
- Persisting challenges related to environmental and biodiversity goals, including sustainable food and land systems
- Negative impacts from unsustainable consumption and supply chains via international spillover effects
- Large gaps and a slow pace of convergence in SDG outcomes across European countries
- Slow progress and even reversal in progress on some indicators under SDG16 and SDG17.
“Prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, it provides an independent quantitative assessment of the progress of the European Union, its member states and partner countries towards the Sustainable Development Goals,” explains Adam Savitz, Senior Partner at Wipro.
How European countries are handling SDGs
In the report, Finland achieved the highest SDG Index score at 81.1, followed closely by Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Norway.
Germany achieved a score of 75.0, the United Kingdom stands at 72.2, France with 73.9 and Italy 72.3.
The lowest scores on the list are Türkiye with 59.1, North Macedonia with 62.5 and Cyprus with 62.7.
Indicators that have made the most progress since 2015 include percentage of individuals who use the internet to make appointments with a practitioner, households with broadband access, positions held by women in senior management positions, gross disposable income and unemployment rate.
Indicators with the worst regression since 2015 include variations in mathematics performance explained by students’ socioeconomic status, underachievers in mathematics, the Press Freedom Index and a gap in self-reported health by income.
The report says that it will take EU Candidate Countries 66 years to catch up with Northern Europe, the continent’s top performing sub-region.