Important Facts For Prelims
Environment Performance Index
- 08 Jun 2022
- 3 min read
Why in News?
In the recently released Environment Performance Index-2022, India was at the bottom among 180.
What is the Environment Performance Index?
- About:
- The Environment Performance Index (EPI) is an international ranking system that measures environmental health and sustainability of countries.
- The EPI, a biennial index, was started in 2002 as Environmental Sustainability Index by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network.
- Framework:
- The 2022 EPI leverages 40 performance indicators grouped into 11 issue categories.
- These issue categories are in turn aggregated into 3 policy objectives:
- Environmental Health
- Ecosystem Vitality
- Climate Change.
- These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are establishing environmental policy targets.
- The EPI team transforms the raw environmental data into indicators that place countries on a 0–100 scale from worst to best performance.
What are the Key Highlights?
- Denmark tops the 2022 rankings — an achievement rooted in strong performance across nearly all issues tracked by the EPI, with notable leadership in efforts to promote a clean energy future and sustainable agriculture.
- The United Kingdom and Finland place 2nd and 3rd, both earning high scores for slashing greenhouse gas emissions in recent years.
- The United States places 20th out of 22 wealthy democracies in the Global West and 43rd overall.
- With a paltry score of 18.9, India’s 180th ranking comes after Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar.
- India has also scored low on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness, according to EPI.
- India was ranked 168th in EPI-2020, with a score of 27.6.
- In EPI-2020, Denmark has been ranked first in environmental health and sustainability.
- Significance of EPI:
- EPI enables decision-makers to recognize the drivers of top-tier performance.
- Analysis of the EPI data demonstrates that financial resources, good governance, human development, and regulatory quality matter for elevating a country’s sustainability.
- Highlighting these connections, the EPI helps to promote sustainable development in support of a more environmentally secure and equitable future
