Environment Performance Index: India fails green test, finishes at bottom

What is the News?

The Environment Performance Index(EPI) 2022 has been released.

What is the Environment Performance Index(EPI)?

Type: EPI is a biennial index.

Started in: 2002 as an 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.

The 2022 EPI is a joint project of the Yale Center and Columbia’s Earth Institute.

Parameters: Using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the 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. Overall, EPI rankings indicate which countries are best addressing environmental challenges.

What are the key findings of the Index?

Topped by: Denmark

India: India has been ranked 180th in the index. This is the last among 180 countries that have been ranked. In 2020, India was ranked 168th.

The index has said that India has prioritized economic growth over environmental sustainability.

Observations: As per EPI estimates, only a handful of countries including Denmark and the United Kingdom are on track to meet net zero-emission goals by 2050. 

Nations such as China, India and Russia are headed in the wrong direction with rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The index projects that four countries — China, India, the United States, and Russia — will account for over 50% of residual global greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 if the current trends hold.

Source: The post is based on the article “Environment Performance Index: India fails green test, finishes at bottom” published in Indian Express on 8th June 2022.