Global measurement of ecological footprint in the context of sustainable development

The relationships between the ecological footprint indicator and the level of achievement of sustainable development goals at the global level were examined. Cluster analysis tools were used to assess such relationships by grouping countries with similar characteristics according to these two indicators. As a consequence, four clusters of countries were identified. The first cluster, which mainly includes African countries, is characterized by a low level of economic development and a minimal impact on the environment. It was determined that the second cluster includes many countries of the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Chile and it’s characterized by a high level of achievement of sustainable development goals and a moderate impact on nature. The third cluster, which includes India, Egypt, Indonesia and other countries, has a low ecological footprint, indicating conservation of natural resources and an average level of achievement of sustainable development goals. These countries have the potential for harmonious social, ecological and economic development. It was established that the countries of the fourth cluster have achieved a significant level of sustainable development, but they use large amounts of natural resources. It was found that the common directions of environmental policy for SDG achievement of are the fight against pollution, resource exhaustion and climate change to avoid a decrease in quality of of life of citizens.


Introduction
There are currently many problems and contradictions on the way to effective and balanced nature management.A phenomenon is observed when, as a result of achieving high economic indicators, environmental stability is lost.Today, the problem of the ecological footprint, particularly from human activity, is acute.Economic progress has provoked an increase in exploitation volumes and in scale of irrational use of natural resources.This, in turn, caused negative external effects and a significant increase in ecological footprint.Moreover, frequent conflicts among the world's countries poses serious challenges.For instance, energy insecurity, active use of fossil fuels as well as environmental instability.
According to Annual report about global footprint humanity currently uses a volume equal to 1.75 planets to provide the population with all the necessary resources and skillfully adjust the waste absorption process.It can be interpreted as follows: our planet needs a whole year and eight months of time to really restore the amount of resources that humanity consumes during the year.
The relationship between the ecological footprint and sustainable development is confirmed by concrete examples: 1) in energy and energy conservation: reducing the use of coal fuel and switching to renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power plants, allow to reduce greenhouse gas

Literature review
Ecological footprint analysis is a new method in ecological economics that quantifies the degree of countries sustainable development of countries [7].The issue of ecological footprint has become the attention subject of many scientists, both foreign and Ukrainian.Ecological footprint analysis has received widespread international and academic recognition and is widely used in regional as well as global sustainability issues, including, resource use, energy consumption, food production, economic development, greenhouse gas emissions, financial trade, due to its robust analysis of indicators, available data and global comparability of the results of the assessment [8,9,10].
Restraining of economy and society development as a result of environmental problems was studied in the work by Varol et al., in particular, it was established that such inconsistency requires new approaches to the global economy evolution [11].It is noteworthy that China is pursuing a high strategic initiative to abandon the scale of economic development in terms of development efficiency, which excludes the new coordination principle and is combined with sustainable development [12,13].
The study by Siwei Dai, Mengying Su, Zhaoyi Xu investigates the natural resources impact, influence of digital economy on ecological footprint in developing countries.2003-2018 was chosen as the research period.Scientists decided to include external conflict to their model.The usage of CCEMG method in the model provides panel estimates, which are robust to cross-sectional dependence and do not respond to heterogeneity in the slope.The practical results of using the declared model confirmed the increase in the availability of natural resources in developing countries.However, the authors note that these resources significantly threaten ecological quality [14].
Investigating the incompatibility of environmental protection and economic development the authors: Rongrong Li, Qiang Wang, Sailan Hu [15] emphasize that the ECC is very important for the development of their policies.However, the results of their study of the relationship between economic development and environmental protection in 258 countries around the world confirmed that the increase in ecological footprint occurs as a result of economic growth.This confirms the unreliability of the EKC hypothesis.
In the article, countries are divided into 3 groups depending on the level of income.It was found that indicators of economic growth and ecological footprint differ in different groups of countries.In particular, in low-income countries the impact of economic growth on the ecological footprint increases with the maximization of natural resources, while in high-and middle-income countries the opposite is true.The authors came to an interesting conclusion about the impact of corruption on the indicators studied.They found that fighting corruption reduces environmental impact across all three groups, however the impact magnitude varies.The cost-effectiveness of natural resource usage and the fight against corruption had the the greatest impact on the group with high-income.This factors had the least impact on the group with low-income.
Emad Kazemzadeh, José Alberto Fuinhas, Nuno Silva analyze the conditions (sufficient and necessary) of the ecological footprint on the example of 103 countries, using 2 different analytical approaches.Selected influencing factors included fragile states, energy consumption, institutional quality, economic growth, trade openness, urbanization.As a result of the calculations it was found that the conditions for the ecological footprint are only energy consumption (according to the first approach) and a low level of GDP (according to the second approach).In general, the obtained results show that the politicians of the world's countries should work on measures to reduce energy consumption in order to decrease the ecological footprint and, on the contrary, to increase economic growth.Together, this will make it possible to ensure the achievement of sustainable development [16].
M.A. Zambrano-Monserrate, M. Alejandra Ruano, D. A. Sanchez-Loor have analyzed 158 countries' ecological footprint data over a decade (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017) to determine whether it is spatially correlated.At the same time, Durbin's dynamic spatial model was used.The trade openness influence, biocapacity effect, GDP effect on the ecological footprint were assessed from a short-and long-term perspective.It was established that the ecological footprint of countries increases under the influence of these factors.The authors emphasize that biocapacity, trade openness have a significant indirect effect from a shortand long-term perspective, while GDP shows a significant direct effect.This significantly affects the ecological footprint [17].It is often necessary to carry out innovative costs for reducing the ecological footprint, which is discussed in the publication: [18].
Most of population in world still lives in countries characterized by environmental scarcity, of which about 80% live in conditions of environmental deficit and сonsume such an amount of resources that the Earth cannot practically reproduce.The research [19] clearly shows that with the exception of Brazil, human needs in another countries have significantly exceeded the Earth's biological capacity, causing environmental excesses, resource depletion, degradation, loss of biodiversity, pollutant emissions.Energy is an integral production component, thus, it plays a key role in economic progress.It should be noted that economic development, as well as human development, are largely related to energy consumption.It is a well-known fact that the world demand for energy is constantly growing.Meeting the ever-increasing energy needs and preserving the environment through the use of various types of energy are the most important global energy challenges that are constantly facing the world community.These challenges require a change in the current energy model [20].

Material and Methods
The study of the ecological footprint is an important component of environmental sciences and sustainable development.Scientists, environmentalists, and politicians use this concept to assess and manage the impact of human activities on nature and to develop strategies to conserve resources and reduce negative environmental impacts.In the article using the cluster analysis method homogeneous groups of countries are distinguished according to the level of ecological footprint index and the index of achieving the SDGs.A sample of 100 countries was taken for analysis, their indicated indices have defined values.These countries differ by territory, number and density of the population, level of economic potential, priorities of economic, social and environmental policy.
The task of grouping a set of objects is that the objects in one cluster are more similar to each other in terms of ecological footprint and level of sustainable development than objects in other clusters.We have used officially published data about the Ecological Footprint Index [21] and SDG Index [22] to create the information base.These are indicators characterizing the consequences of social activities regarding the use of the natural recources for sustainable development.
Ecological Footprint Index [21] (EFI) evaluates the influence of human actions on Earth's environment and its natural resources.This index measures the amount of natural resources and land needed to support human consumption and emissions.Specific aspects measured by the Ecological Footprint include the following: 1. Resource consumption: The ecological footprint takes into account how much natural resources, such as water, energy, land, forests, fish stocks, etc., are used to meet society's needs.It assesses how intensively these resources are used.
2. Emissions and pollution: The ecological footprint includes the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, emissions of pollutants and other types of pollution generated as a result of production and consumption.This helps determine the impact on the atmosphere and climate, as well as on water resources and soils.
3. Comparison with actual volumes: The ecological footprint compares the measured volumes of consumption and emissions with the Earth's ability to renew these resources and absorb emissions.This helps determine whether we are consuming resources faster than the Earth can regenerate them, and whether we are negatively impacting the climate and ecosystems.
Data from the National Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts (NFBA) [23] are used to analyze the ecological footprint.The database is produced by York University's Ecological Footprint Initiative for the Footprint Data Foundation [24].To calculate the index, the use of environmental resources and the resource potential of nations are measured for the relevant periods based on about 15,000 data points per country per year for more than 200 countries, territories and regions [23].
The ecological footprint helps to assess the degree of sustainability and the Earth's ability to withstand the impact of human activity.This index is a useful tool for determining whether we are living within the ecological capacity of the planet and whether we are meeting the goals of sustainable development.
The SDG Index [22] measures progress in achieving the SDGs, which were adopted by the UN in September 2015.These goals are aimed at achieving sustainable development, including fighting poverty, ensuring access to quality education and health care, reducing inequalities, combating climate change and ensuring access to clean water and sanitation.The SDG Index measures how well countries are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and helps policy makers and international organizations direct their efforts to achieve these important goals for the sustainable development of our planet.The methodology for calculating the SDG Index [25] takes into account the achievement of 17 sustainable development goals through the calculation of 88 indicators that can be calculated taking into account both official and unofficial data, as well as sensitivity and stability tests.Conducting a cluster analysis of the countries of the world according to the Ecological Footprint Index [21] and SDG Index [22] can be a useful tool for studying the relationship between the level of environmental impact and the sustainable development of countries, as well as for identifying similar groups of countries with similar characteristics.
The advantages of cluster analysis in this regard include: 1. Cluster analysis allows grouping countries with similar characteristics, which can can aid in enhancing comprehension of common trends and differences in their sustainable development.
2. Studying clusters can help identify best practices in achieving sustainable development and efficient use of resources.
3. The analysis can provide important information for policy development aimed at improving outcomes in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The limitations of cluster analysis, which should be taken into account when conducting our research, are: 1. To conduct a cluster analysis, it is necessary to have access to high-quality and comprehensive data on the ecological footprint and SDG Index for many countries.Official sites that publish index values provide dynamic information across countries.Those countries for which at least one indicator was not calculated and published were excluded from the study.
2. Analyzing the interpretation of the results of cluster analysis can be a difficult task, and it is important to understand that clusters can only be statistical groups, the interpretation of which can vary depending on the context.
3. Usually, for cluster analysis, it is important to have a large enough sample to ensure representativeness and statistical power.Our sample size, which is about 50% of the general population, should therefore provide a high level of reliability for the obtained results.
The initial data for cluster analysis have the form of a rectangular matrix "object -feature".We standardize the output variables in order to eliminate the dependence of the variables on the units of measurement.Standardization reduces the values of all transformed variables to a single range of values, namely, the mean of each is reduced to 0 and the standard deviation to 1. Then all observations vary approximately in the range from -3 to +3.In the course of standardization, a transition is made from the matrix of initial data xj to the matrix of standardized values z, y.For standardization, we used the transition formula: де xij -the average value of the j-th feature; σj -root mean square deviation of the j-th feature.According to the results of the cluster analysis carried out using the Excel software product using the k-means method, we obtain the following results (Tables 1, 2, 3).When divided into three clusters, we have segments with a more uniform distribution: 30% of countries belong to segment 1 (these are countries with an average level of the ecological footprint and an average level of the SDG Index); 24% of countries belong to segment 2 (these are countries with a high level of both indicators); 46% of the country belongs to segment 3 (these are countries with low values of both indicators).The division into four clusters is characterized by the following statistical indicators: segment 1 (19% of countries)countries with a low level of EFI, a low level of the SDG Index; segment 2 (35% of countries)countries with an average level of EFI and a high level of the SDG Index; segment 3 (18% of countries)countries with a low level of EFI and an average level of the SDG Index; segment 4 (28% of countries)countries with high values of both indices.
When divided into five clusters, we have the following segments: 13% of countries belong to segment 1, 6% of countries belong to segment 2 (these are segments with low values of both indices); 27% of countries belong to segment 3 (these are countries with a low ecological footprint and an average SDG Index); 30% of countries belong to segment 4 (these are countries with average values of both indicators); 24% of countries belong to segment 5 (these are countries with high values of both indicators).Total SSE by number of segments is shown in Fig. 1.Search for "elbow" on the curve.The optimal number of clusters will be 4, at which the curve becomes more "flat" -like a bend in the elbow.

Fig. 1. Total SSE by number of segments
According to the selected number of clusters -4, we form the distribution of countries by clusters (Fig. 2, Table 5).

Fig. 2. Segmentation Map for 4 Segments
As illustrated in fig.2, segment 1 includes 19% of countries, segment 2 -35% of countries, segment 3 -18% of countries, segment 4 -28% of all countries.Thus, the largest is the third segment, the smallest is the first.According to the results of the analysis we can see that the first cluster contains countries with a low level of achievement of sustainable development goals and a low level of the ecological footprint index (the cluster is mostly represented by African countries).The second cluster consists of countries with a high level of achievement of sustainable development goals and an average level of the ecological footprint index (USA , Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, etc.).The third cluster includes countries with an average level of achievement of sustainable development goals and a low level of the ecological footprint index (India, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.).The fourth segment consists of countries with a high level of achievement of both indices (Australia, Austria, Canada, Israel, Poland, etc.).
To achieve the goals of sustainable development while reducing the environmental footprint, states can implement various strategic directions in policy and legislation, in particular: 1. Development of renewable energy sources: States can promote the development of solar, wind, hydroelectric power plants and other renewable energy sources by providing financial support, creating incentives for investment and setting goals for the use of renewable energy sources.
2. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions: Implementation of mandatory standards for limiting CO2 emissions into the atmosphere for industrial enterprises and transport can contribute to reducing the impact on climate change.
3. Stimulation of green mobility: Support for public transport, development of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructures, investments in electric and hybrid cars contribute to reducing the use of fuel vehicles.
4. Green building strategy: Introduction of requirements for green construction, efficient use of resources and reduction of CO2 emissions during construction and operation of buildings.1269 (2023) 012032 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1269/1/01203210 5. Support for environmentally friendly technologies and innovations: Financial support and incentives for companies that develop and implement technologies and innovations aimed at reducing the negative impact on the environment.
6. Biodiversity protection: Creation and maintenance of nature reserves, measures to protect forests, marine ecosystems and other biodiverse objects.
7. Sustainable use of water resources: Development and implementation of strategies for the conservation of water resources and efficient use of water in agriculture, industry and urban water supply.
8. Waste and recycling: Development of a waste recycling system and the use of secondary materials to reduce the amount of garbage.9. Education and information work: Conducting educational campaigns and information work on environmental problems and ways to solve them to attract the public.

Conclusions
The level of the ecological footprint and the achievement of the SDGs are indeed interrelated, and this interdependence reflects how environmental aspects affect the overall sustainable development of society.These two concepts interact in several aspects: 1) the ecological footprint measures how much natural resources are used to meet human needs and to process emissions and waste; if the level of the ecological footprint is very high, it can lead to environmental problems such as resource depletion, environmental pollution and climate change, which threatens the achievement of SDGs; 2) achieving the goals of sustainable development requires a variety of natural resources, such as clean water, energy, land for agricultural production, etc.; if these resources are exceeded or insufficiently conserved, this can become an obstacle to achieving the goals of sustainable development; 3) climate change, which results from greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems, can have a serious impact on people's livelihoods, including access to food, water and shelter, and affect the achievement of such SDGs as fighting hunger, providing clean water and comfortable housing.
The ecological footprint and the achievement of SDGs are interconnected through the complex interaction between the consumption of natural resources, emissions and their impact on the quality of life of people and the environment.To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to balance the consumption of resources with nature's ability to restore these resources and reduce the negative impact on the environment.
The results of the cluster analysis carried out by the authors made it possible to determine the circle of countries according to the level of achievement of SDGs and the volume of the ecological footprint.The first cluster unites countries that mostly have low indicators of economic development and a low negative impact on nature due to low production indicators (mostly African countries).The second cluster which includes many countries of the European Union as well as Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, etc., is associated with a high level of achievement of sustainable development goals and an average level of ecological footprint.The countries of this cluster implement a balanced economic and environmental policy for a balanced impact on the natural environment.Countries of the third cluster, in particular India, Egypt, Indonesia, etc. have relatively low indicators of the ecological footprint, which indicates the provision of sufficient conditions for the development of biodiversity and the reproduction of natural resources, along with the average indicator of achieving the SDGs.These countries have good potential for harmonious social, ecological and economic development.The countries of the fourth segment have achieved a significant level of sustainable development with large volumes of nature resources use.Further policies that will ignore environmental pollution, resource depletion, and climate change will lead to a significant decrease in the level of sustainable development and the quality of life of citizens.

Table 1 .
Output for TWO Clusters/Segments

Table 2 .
Output for THREE Clusters/Segments

Table 3 .
Output for FOUR Clusters/Segments

Table 4 .
Output for FIVE Clusters/Segments Prospects for further research are the development of state policy mechanisms aimed at achieving the maximum level of sustainable development while reducing the volume of the ecological footprint.