Exploring the link between Asia and Europe connectivity and sustainable development

Asia and Europe have made connectivity between people, businesses and institutions a top political priority in the frame of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) intergovernmental cooperation forum. In the ASEM context, policy leaders agreed that improving connectivity between countries should contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Connectivity is a complex concept involving multiple dimensions. Yet in order to provide clear data-driven evidence to support policymaking on Asia-Europe sustainable connectivity, this concept calls for a measurement framework. The mismatch between the politically adopted definition of sustainable connectivity and existing metrics, led to the development of the two indexes described in this paper. Taken together, they help to explore and understand the relationship between connectivity and sustainability. The results suggest that connectivity and sustainability policy agendas have the potential to mutually reinforce one another. Higher values in connectivity are strongly associated with higher values in the social dimension of sustainability. There are evident gaps between European and Asian nations in terms of connectivity and sustainability. However, both continents are underpinned by the common challenge of reducing the environmental impacts of connectivity without neglecting economic/financial sustainability aspects, while at the same time ensuring that benefits will accrue to society at large.