Global Competetiveness Report

Country Rankings
Resource Intensity
Resource Intensity
Country Rank Score
Sudan 1 61.3
Sri Lanka 2 60.3
Albania 3 60.1
Burma 4 60.0
Tajikistan 5 59.2
Angola 6 58.3
Republic of Congo 7 57.1
Switzerland 8 56.9
Nigeria 9 56.7
Nepal 10 56.5
Guinea-Bissau 11 56.4
Colombia 12 55.9
Luxembourg 13 55.4
Philippines 14 55.3
Peru 15 55.2
Ethiopia 16 55.0
Ghana 17 55.0
Afghanistan 18 54.7
Zambia 19 54.6
Nicaragua 20 54.4
Georgia 21 54.1
Belize 22 54.0
El Salvador 23 54.0
Austria 24 54.0
Dominica 25 53.8
Paraguay 26 53.6
Equatorial Guinea 27 53.4
Gambia 28 53.3
Portugal 29 53.0
Ecuador 30 53.0
Mozambique 31 52.7
Eritrea 32 52.7
Madagascar 33 52.7
Mali 34 52.6
Italy 35 52.2
Panama 36 52.1
Argentina 37 52.1
Bhutan 38 52.0
Costa Rica 39 51.9
Brazil 40 51.6
Lesotho 41 51.6
Swaziland 42 51.5
Croatia 43 51.4
Chad 44 51.3
The top of the intensity ranking is dominated
by countries that are - under general
classifications based on standard economic
and financial criteria – considered to be on a
lower level of development. Other than
Switzerland and Luxembourg, all countries in
the top twenty can be allocated to this
development category. It is not surprising that
countries with a lower level of economic
development or output have a comparably
small per-capita resource usage.
The observation that some (but not all) of
those countries on average also seem to
consume less recourses relative to the
economic output – i.e. resource productivity
measured in resource consumption per GDP –
is less expected.
Some countries considered highly developed
nations (such as Switzerland or Austria, for
example) show a fair level of resource
efficiency, while other countries with
comparable industrial characteristics
currently have a higher resource intensity or
lower resource efficiency.
The ranking finds countries from all regions
and all development levels next to each
other in the ranking with no obvious
correlation.
The above observation allows to conclude
that the resource intensity and resource
efficiency is not correlated to geography and
climate. It is also not directly correlated to the
level of economic development and output.
The absence of such correlations suggests
that resource intensity and resource
efficiency are to a considerable degree
influenced by the nature of economic and
industrial policies, regulations and incentives.
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The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index