ESG criteria for the evaluation of European countries: a multicriteria analysis (MCDA)

In recent decades, climate change and sustainability have emerged as critical issues within global economic and political contexts. This paper investigates the application of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria for evaluating European countries using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods. Following an overview of the evolution of climate policies and key sustainability frameworks, four MCDA methods (TOPSIS, VIKOR, PROMETHEE and SIR) are analyzed in detail. Each method is explored from both a theoretical perspective and through practical implementations in Python. Additionally, various normalisation techniques are applied to the selected methods to examine their influence on the results and to study the differences arising from their application (in detail: Vector Normalisation, Linear Normalisation, Row/Column Maximum Normalisation). A case study is presented to evaluate European countries based on ESG data, comparing the effectiveness and differences among the selected methods. The results highlight the potential of MCDA approaches, combined with normalisation techniques to support complex decision-making processes, providing an integrated and systematic perspective to address sustainability challenges