Análise da ecoeficiência entre os países: um estudo entre os anos de 1991 e 2012.

Abstract

The concept of ecoefficiency arose from the need to use the natural resources efficiently, thus seeking economic and environmental sustainability. The objective of this research was to calculate the Eco-Efficiency Index (IE) for 51 countries using the Free Disposal Envelopment method and the estimation of a Tobit Regression in order to determine the explanatory variables that had the greatest impact on IE. It was found that the value of the average eco-efficiency decreased. There was predominance of the developed countries and the European continent in the major IE. The worst results were achieved by India and China. In the IE classification, in all years, very low IE was the largest number of countries and the predominant continent was Asia. From the explanatory variables used in the regression model, the Gross Formation of Fixed Capital, Consumption of Fossil Fuels and Coal Rents showed that they have a negative effect on the eco-efficiency score, while the Adult Literacy Rate and Government Quality variables generate a positive effect. These results show that some countries have assumed responsibility for environmental issues, but they are insufficient to transform the current reality, showing that it is necessary to increase the knowledge about the subject to propose better global and local alternatives, in the search to reach sustainability is so necessary and urgent for future generations.