Global Responsibility & the Spillover Score

A country can perform well internally while creating negative impacts elsewhere. A high score on health, education, or income at home says nothing about what a country’s trade, tax system, or finance sector does to people and ecosystems beyond its own borders.

That is the question Global Responsibility exists to answer. Where our Global Development pages track how a country is doing, Global Responsibility looks at what a country’s actions mean for others, and at what it is doing, diplomatically and financially, to help carry a shared global burden.

Most sustainability rankings stop at the border. This page is where RYB doesn’t.

To measure this, we use the Spillover Score, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). It is not a United Nations ranking. See who publishes it below.

Global Responsibility, government building

Madrid, Spain (España) | photo Daiana Seeck

Global Development

Who publishes the Spillover Score?

The Spillover Score is not a United Nations ranking. It is part of the Sustainable Development Report, produced each year by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and published with Dublin University Press. SDSN has operated since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General, and its name is often written as the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which is why the score is sometimes mistaken for an official UN ranking. SDSN’s own authors describe the SDG Index and its spin-off indices as independent from the United Nations, and the report presents itself as a complement to the official SDG indicators and the voluntary national reviews. RYB therefore attributes the score to SDSN, not to the UN.

The 2026 edition is the 11th edition of the report. Source: Sachs, J.D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., Iablonovski, G. (2026). Implementing Sustainable Development: 2030 and Beyond. Sustainable Development Report 2026. Paris: SDSN. Dublin: Dublin University Press. DOI: 10.82163/225.

What is the Spillover Score?

The Spillover Score, formally the International Spillover Index, measures the cross-border effects of a country’s economic activity: the environmental, social, financial and security consequences that fall on other countries rather than on the country generating them. A higher score means a country causes more positive and fewer negative spillover effects.

The score is the equally weighted average of a country’s scores on 13 indicators. Two examples from the 2026 edition show why spillovers are measured separately:

The Netherlands ranks strongly on domestic SDG indicators, yet comes 167th of 169 countries on spillovers, driven by red scores on plastic waste exports and arms exports.
Finland ranks first on the overall SDG Index, but comes 144th of 169 on spillovers.

Every country’s own Spillover Score, and its trend over time, lives on its Global Development page alongside its SDG scores. This page explains what the score is built from, indicator by indicator.

How to read the score

The score runs from 0 to 100. Higher is better.
Positive spillovers, such as official development assistance (ODA), raise the score. Negative spillovers, such as imported deforestation, lower it.
“Embodied in trade” means damage that happens in other countries to produce goods a country consumes.
Most indicators are measured per person. Small wealthy countries therefore often score lowest, and large countries can look better than their total impact suggests.
The score is a composite. It is a useful signal, not a full picture.

The 13 indicators behind the score

The Sustainable Development Report groups the 13 indicators into three categories. Where RYB has reporting on a topic, the indicator links to it. Otherwise it links to the original data source.

Environmental and social impacts embodied in trade

Imported deforestation: Land cleared abroad to grow the goods a country imports. Tracked by the Global Sustainable Consumption and Investment (GSCI) initiative.
Plastic waste exports: Plastic waste shipped abroad for disposal or recycling, often to countries with weaker environmental oversight. Tracked in the UN Comtrade database.
GHG emissions embodied in imports: Greenhouse gases emitted in other countries to make the goods a country consumes. Based on research by Lenzen et al., hosted on the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative’s SCP Hotspots Analysis Tool.
Scarce water consumption embodied in imports: Water drawn from water-stressed regions abroad to produce imported goods. See the UNEP SCP Hotspots Analysis Tool.
Air pollution associated with imports: Health-damaging air pollution generated elsewhere by production for export. See the UNEP SCP Hotspots Analysis Tool.
Nitrogen emissions associated with imports: Nitrogen pollution, largely agricultural, generated abroad to supply imported food and goods. See the UNEP SCP Hotspots Analysis Tool.
Marine biodiversity threats embodied in imports: Pressure on ocean ecosystems elsewhere caused by imported seafood and marine products. Based on research published in Nature.
Exports of hazardous pesticides: Pesticides banned or restricted at home but still manufactured for export and used abroad. See the FAO for the underlying data.

Economy and finance

Corporate Tax Haven Score: How much a jurisdiction’s laws help multinational corporations underpay tax owed elsewhere, published by the Tax Justice Network. See our Tax Havens reporting.
Shifted profits of multinationals: Corporate profits moved on paper into low-tax jurisdictions, away from where the economic activity happens. Tracked by the Atlas of the Offshore World.
Official Development Assistance (ODA): Concessional public finance a country provides to support development elsewhere, as defined by the OECD Development Assistance Committee. See our ODA reporting.

UN-based multilateralism, peace and security

Index of support to UN-based multilateralism: How consistently a country ratifies, funds and votes in line with UN treaties and institutions. Explore the UN-Mi Dashboard.
Exports of major conventional weapons: The volume of tanks, aircraft and other major arms a country sends abroad, tracked by the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database.

The report also shows a 14th spillover indicator, the Financial Secrecy Score, but only in the dashboards for OECD countries. It is not part of the score. See our Financial Secrecy reporting.

2026 Spillover Score by Country

169 countries have a score in the 2026 edition. A further 24 countries, mostly small states, are listed without a score. Countries are ranked from the highest score, meaning the fewest negative effects on other countries, to the lowest.

A high rank means a small negative footprint on others, not that a country does the most good. Trinidad and Tobago, Sierra Leone and Zambia lead the table. Singapore, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are at the bottom.

Source: Sustainable Development Report 2026, Spillover Rankings, SDSN.

Rank	Country	Spillover Score
1	Trinidad and Tobago	97.84
2	Sierra Leone	97.68
3	Zambia	97.40
4	Maldives	97.39
5	Mozambique	97.21
6	Brazil	96.59
7	Malawi	96.46
8	Madagascar	96.36
9	Nigeria	96.26
10	Uganda	96.26
11	Senegal	96.19
12	Philippines	96.07
13	India	95.74
14	Bangladesh	95.66
15	Mali	95.66
16	Ethiopia	95.65
17	Suriname	95.56
18	Ecuador	95.50
19	Sri Lanka	95.41
20	Togo	95.41
21	Colombia	95.33
22	Cambodia	95.31
23	Cabo Verde	95.23
24	Benin	95.09
25	Cuba	95.08
26	Fiji	94.95
27	Argentina	94.91
28	Haiti	94.90
29	Angola	94.90
30	Burkina Faso	94.85
31	Guinea	94.82
32	Indonesia	94.81
33	Bolivia	94.74
34	Zimbabwe	94.65
35	Lesotho	94.61
36	Niger	94.61
37	Tanzania	94.51
38	Peru	94.48
39	Cameroon	94.44
40	Nepal	94.42
41	Gambia, The	94.38
42	Tajikistan	94.29
43	Pakistan	94.24
44	Morocco	94.21
45	Papua New Guinea	94.18
46	Paraguay	93.92
47	Myanmar	93.88
48	Algeria	93.88
49	Kyrgyz Republic	93.78
50	Congo, Dem. Rep.	93.71
51	Ghana	93.64
52	Central African Republic	93.60
53	Uzbekistan	93.54
54	Burundi	93.50
55	Nicaragua	93.37
56	Chad	93.20
57	Mongolia	93.06
58	Uruguay	93.06
59	Egypt, Arab Rep.	93.04
60	Rwanda	93.00
61	Belize	92.90
62	Honduras	92.84
63	Eritrea	92.78
64	Cote d’Ivoire	92.73
65	Yemen, Rep.	92.70
66	Mauritania	92.68
67	Gabon	92.62
68	Namibia	92.50
69	Sudan	92.26
70	Kenya	92.03
71	Timor-Leste	91.94
72	Barbados	91.80
73	Moldova	91.61
74	Dominican Republic	91.55
75	Azerbaijan	91.34
76	Liberia	91.26
77	Tunisia	91.25
78	Ukraine	91.20
79	Armenia	91.01
80	Bosnia and Herzegovina	90.93
81	Kazakhstan	90.92
82	South Africa	90.63
83	Syrian Arab Republic	90.62
84	Comoros	90.60
85	Lao PDR	90.56
86	Sao Tome and Principe	90.14
87	Afghanistan	89.90
88	Thailand	89.69
89	Mexico	89.49
90	Albania	89.45
91	Vietnam	89.04
92	Guinea-Bissau	89.01
93	China	88.92
94	Venezuela, RB	88.81
95	South Sudan	88.54
96	Congo, Rep.	88.39
97	Belarus	88.14
98	Jordan	88.14
99	Georgia	87.89
100	Somalia	87.87
101	Botswana	87.34
102	Turkiye	87.32
103	Eswatini	87.22
104	Iraq	87.03
105	Chile	86.89
106	Guatemala	86.38
107	Iran, Islamic Rep.	86.32
108	Jamaica	86.16
109	Malaysia	86.16
110	Serbia	85.63
111	Russian Federation	84.96
112	Montenegro	84.74
113	Turkmenistan	84.45
114	North Macedonia	82.96
115	Costa Rica	82.39
116	El Salvador	81.92
117	Bhutan	81.18
118	Guyana	81.10
119	Djibouti	80.30
120	Oman	77.91
121	Bulgaria	77.08
122	Romania	76.04
123	Saudi Arabia	75.93
124	Mauritius	75.15
125	Hungary	75.05
126	Bahrain	74.97
127	Poland	74.38
128	Japan	73.53
129	Lebanon	73.06
130	Bahamas, The	71.78
131	Croatia	71.75
132	Brunei Darussalam	71.16
133	Australia	69.74
134	Portugal	69.40
135	Italy	69.08
136	Kuwait	68.92
137	Greece	68.72
138	Spain	68.36
139	Canada	68.36
140	Korea, Rep.	68.11
141	Malta	67.77
142	Panama	67.62
143	Slovak Republic	67.47
144	Finland	66.88
145	New Zealand	65.50
146	Czechia	65.06
147	Slovenia	64.96
148	Austria	63.60
149	Germany	63.27
150	Sweden	62.45
151	Latvia	62.33
152	France	61.87
153	United Arab Emirates	61.54
154	United States	61.31
155	Lithuania	59.95
156	Iceland	59.11
157	Denmark	58.77
158	Israel	58.62
159	Norway	56.99
160	Estonia	55.14
161	United Kingdom	54.91
162	Qatar	53.84
163	Cyprus	52.99
164	Belgium	51.28
165	Ireland	47.91
166	Switzerland	42.08
167	Netherlands	41.22
168	Luxembourg	40.53
169	Singapore	28.99
–	Andorra	–
–	Antigua and Barbuda	–
–	Dominica	–
–	Equatorial Guinea	–
–	Grenada	–
–	Kiribati	–
–	Korea, Dem. Rep.	–
–	Libya	–
–	Liechtenstein	–
–	Marshall Islands	–
–	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	–
–	Monaco	–
–	Nauru	–
–	Palau	–
–	Samoa	–
–	San Marino	–
–	Seychelles	–
–	Solomon Islands	–
–	St. Kitts and Nevis	–
–	St. Lucia	–
–	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	–
–	Tonga	–
–	Tuvalu	–
–	Vanuatu	–

Why this matters

A country’s results at home are only half the story. RYB shows both halves of the picture, with sources, and updates them as the data improves.

Limits of the score

It is a composite: one number that combines many indicators. The report publishes the individual indicator dashboards alongside it for that reason.
Several trade indicators rely on models of global supply chains, not direct measurements.
Only what is measured is included. Impacts without good global data are missing.

Related Sustainable Development Goals

The Spillover Score is a lens on SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals, which calls for policy coherence for sustainable development. The indicators also connect to other goals, which each topic page will explain.

Keep reading

Data: Sustainable Development Report 2026. To report an error, contact us.

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