Disasters Weaken the Synergy Effects among the Global Sustainable Development Goals

This research dataset aims to systematically analyze the impact of natural disasters on the synergy effects among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing scientific evidence for understanding how disaster shocks disrupt the global sustainable development process. The dataset is constructed from panel data covering 137 countries with relatively complete cross-national data over the period 2010–2022, encompassing multiple dimensions including sustainable development performance, exposure to natural disasters, socioeconomic characteristics, and governance capacity.

The data show that scores for 13 SDGs (SDG1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17), calculated using the entropy method, are used to construct two types of synergy indicators: first, the composite synergy index among 13 SDGs (CSSDGs), which measures the overall coupling coordination degree of the 13 goals and reflects the systemic synergy level of national sustainable development; and second, the synergy index between pair of SDGs (PSSDGs), comprising 78 pairwise combinations, used to identify interactive relationships between specific goal pairs. The SDG indicators data are sourced from the World Bank database and the Global SDG Indicators Database, while the mediating and control variables are primarily obtained from the World Bank database. Natural disaster data are drawn from the EM-DAT International Disaster Database, focusing on nine severe disaster types: floods, droughts, earthquakes, storms, extreme temperatures, wildfires, epidemics, landslides, and volcanic activity. The core explanatory variable is the logarithm of disaster duration (LnDuration), supplemented by the logarithm of death tolls (LnDeath) and the logarithm of affected population (LnAffected) for robustness checks.

Key findings from the study include: natural disasters significantly weaken the synergy effects among SDGs, and this negative impact persists for up to two years, with droughts and extreme temperatures having particularly pronounced effects. Mechanism analysis reveals that human capital and government governance mitigate these negative impacts, whereas trade openness exacerbates them. Heterogeneity analysis shows that lower-middle-income countries, as well as countries in Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa, are more vulnerable to the disruptive effects of disasters on SDG synergies. Furthermore, disasters particularly weaken the synergies between SDG1 (No Poverty) and other goals, and between SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being) and other goals in low-income countries.