The role of environmental social governance on achieving sustainable development goals in Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Despite the fact that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been progressive as a result of a significant increase in economic and demographic growth, a high proportion of stakeholders and extensive use of technology over the past years were noticed. This growth has led to unsustainable consumption of scarce resources such as energy, food, and water, thereby challenging GCC countries to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Accordingly, these countries faced several environmental and social problems because of the rising pollution, and the rapid increase in economic activities. This paper seeks to examine the impact of environmental, social, and governance factors on achieving sustainable development goals in GCC countries. The study employs secondary data from the United Nations (UN) and World Development Indicators (WDI), spanning the years 2000 to 2021. To assess data stationarity, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test is applied. Both short- and long-term relationships among the variables are analyzed using a pooled mean group (PMG) panel autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) econometric model. Results indicate a significant positive association between environmental governance, social governance, corporate governance, and the attainment of SDGs. This indicates that the country that has a high implementation of ESG strategies is more likely to achieve SDGs. The findings of this study are useful for government entities, business organizations, and potential research to formulate policy guidelines while maintaining SDGs through ESG.