Environment Performance Index

Environment Performance Index

Subject: Environment

Section: Indices

Context: The recently released Environment Performance Index -2022, an international ranking system that measures environmental health and sustainability of countries, has ranked India last among 180 countries that have been ranked.

Concept:

• 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.
• Using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy targets.
• The report has found that “good policy results are associated with wealth (GDP per capita)’’, meaning economic prosperity makes it possible for nations to invest in policies and programmes that lead to desirable outcomes.
• This trend is especially true for environmental health, as building the necessary infrastructure to provide clean drinking water and sanitation, reduce ambient air pollution, control hazardous waste, and respond to public health crises yields large returns for human well-being.
• The report says that top-performing countries have paid attention to all areas of sustainability, while their lagging peers tend to have uneven performance.
• With a paltry score of 18.9, India’s 180th ranking comes after Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar — the bottom five together make up the poorest performing countries for environmental health.
• India has also scored low on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness, according to EPI.
• India was ranked 168^th in EPI-2020, with a score of 27.6 and Denmark has been ranked first.