Green economy performance and sustainable development achievement: empirical evidence from Saudi Arabia

As a pillar of United Nations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pursues to greener its economy and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. The green economy represents a catalyzer for sustainable development in its three dimensions -economic, social and environmental- aiming to improve human well-being and social equity and reduce environmental risks. However, the relevant previous studies lacked the role of green economy on sustainable development for the Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, this paper aims to explore how green is the kingdom and analyze its performance toward sustainable development from 2015 to 2020. To do so, we adopt the EEPSE Green Economy Index that combines educational, economic, political, societal and environmental indicators associated with the pillars of the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model. In this study, this index is composed of 42 indicators related to the green economy and the sustainable development. The empirical results suggest that the Saudi Arabia witnessed a significant progress of EEPSE GEI score. In addition, the findings support that the performance of the kingdom regarding the green economy is affected after the COVID-19 crisis. Thus, the paper provides original visions for policy makers to encourage the transition to green economy which constitutes the main locomotive to attain the economic, social and environment sustainability for the kingdom.