Siddhi Jain
New Delhi
India has ranked 168th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), as per researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, who say Indias decarbonisation agenda needs to accelerate, and the country faces several serious environmental health risks, including poor air quality.
In the 2020 EPI — a biennial scorecard of national results on a range of sustainability issues — Denmark has ranked first in the world, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK, France, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany in the top 10 countries. While Japan has ranked 12th, the US ranks 24 and China at 120th.
Now in its 22nd year, the EPI report has become the premier metrics framework for global environmental policy analysis, ranking 180 countries on 32 performance indicators across 11 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The 2020 EPI features new metrics that gauge waste management, carbon dioxide emissions from land cover change, and emissions of fluorinated gases Â- all important drivers of climate change. The findings were released in June 2020.
The researchers said high-scoring countries generally exhibit long-standing commitments and carefully constructed programs to protect public health, conserve natural resources, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
India comes in near the bottom of the global rankings at 168th place worldwide, and only Afghanistan (178th place) ranks below India in Southern Asia. Leading the region is Bhutan (107th), with relatively high scores in biodiversity & habitat protection. Lanka (109th) and Maldives (127th) round out the top three countries in Southern Asia, followed by Pakistan (142nd), Nepal (145th), and Bangladesh (162nd).
India struggles to perform well in several 2020 EPI’s green issue categories. For air quality, India and Pakistan both rank at the bottom of the 2020 EPI, at 179th and 180th places, respectively. By comparison, low air quality plagues China, though its recent pollution controls and other green investments have helped it climb to 120th place in EPI, 48 places ahead of India’s 168th overall rank.
