Environmental Performance Index

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The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically benchmarking the environmental performance of a country's policies. This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.[1]

The EPI was preceded by the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), published between 1999 and 2005. Both indexes were developed by Yale University (Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy) and Columbia University (Center for International Earth Science Information Network) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The ESI was developed to evaluate environmental sustainability relative to the paths of other countries. Due to a shift in focus by the teams developing the ESI, the EPI uses outcome-oriented indicators, then working as a benchmark index that can be more easily used by policy makers, environmental scientists, advocates and the general public.[2]

As of January 2012 four EPI reports have been released - the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index,[3] and the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Environmental Performance Index.[4][5] For the 2012 report, a new "Pilot Trend EPI" was developed to rank countries based on the environmental performance changes occurred during the last decade, allowing to establish which countries are improving and which are declining.[6]

In the 2012 EPI ranking, the top five countries were Switzerland, Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica. The bottom five countries were South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq.[5] The United Kingdom was ranked in 9th place, Japan 23rd place, Brazil 30th, the United States 49th, China 116th, and India came in 125th.[5][7] The top five countries based on their Pilot Trend EPI were Latvia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Albania and Egypt.[6]

2008 variables [edit]

EPI 2008: Objectives, policy categories and sub-categories, and indicators
OBJECTIVE
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
POLICY CATEGORIES
Environmental Burden of Disease
Water (effects on humans)
Air Pollution (effects on humans)
INDICATORS 1. Environmental Burden of Disease 2. Adequate Sanitation 4. Indoor Air Pollution
3. Drinking Water 5. Urban Particulates
6. Local Ozone
OBJECTIVE
ECOSYSTEM VITALITY
POLICY CATEGORIES
Air Pollution (effects on ecosystems)
Water
Biodiversity and Habitat
INDICATORS 7. Regional Ozone 9. Water Quality Index 11. Conservation Risk Index
8. Sulfur Dioxide Emissions 10. Water Stress 12. Effective Conservation
13. Critical Habitat Protection
14. Marine Protected Areas
POLICY CATEGORIES
Productive Natural Resources
Productive Natural Resources
Productive Natural Resources
POLICY SUB-CATEGORY
Forestry
Fisheries
Agriculture
INDICATORS 15. Growing Stock 16. Marine Trophic Index 18. Irrigation Stress
17. Trawling Intensity 19. Agricultural Subsidies
20. Intensive Cropland
21. Burnt Land Area
22. Pesticide Regulation
POLICY CATEGORIES
Climate Change
INDICATORS 23. Emissions per capita
24. Emissions per electricity generated
25. Industrial carbon intensity

EPI scores [edit]

2012 [edit]

On 25 January 2012 Yale University and Columbia University released the 2012 Environmental Performance Index at the World Economic Forum ranking 132 countries.[5]

Top 30 countries and score[5]

  1.  Switzerland 76.69
  2.  Latvia 70.37
  3.  Norway 69.92
  4.  Luxembourg 69.2
  5.  Costa Rica 69.03
  6. Northwest TerritoriesNunavutYukonFormer colonies and territories in CanadaTerritorial evolution of Canadaafter 1867 Proposed provinces and territories of CanadaBibliographyExtreme pointsby GDPby government spendingLanguage policiesName etymologiesMuseumsPopulationRegionsTotal areaTopicsSymbolsUnemploymentWikipedia bookBookCategoryCategoryPortalPortalWikiProjectWikiProject
    69
  7.  Austria 68.92
  8. Template:Chile 68.9
  9.  United Kingdom 68.82
  10.  Sweden 68.82
  1.  Germany 66.91
  2.  Slovakia 66.62
  3.  Iceland 66.28
  4.  New Zealand 66.05
  5.  Albania 65.85
  6.  Netherlands 65.65
  7.  Lithuania 65.5
  8.  Czech Republic 64.79
  9.  Finland 64.44
  10.  Croatia 64.16
  1.  Denmark 63.61
  2.  Poland 63.47
  3.  Japan 63.36
  4.  Belgium 63.02
  5.  Malaysia 62.51
  6.  Brunei 62.49
  7.  Colombia 62.33
  8.  Slovenia 62.25
  9.  Taiwan 62.23
  10.  Brazil 60.9

Top 10 countries by Trend EPI[5][6] The EPI rank is shown in parentheses.

  1.  Latvia (2)
  2.  Azerbaijan (111)
  3.  Romania (88)
  4.  Albania (15)
  5.  Egypt (60)
  6.  Angola (90)
  7.  Slovakia (12)
  8.  Ireland (36)
  9.  Belgium (24)
  10.  Thailand (34)

Worst 10 countries by Trend EPI[5][6] The EPI rank is shown in parentheses.

  1.  Turkmenistan (131)
  2.  South Africa (128)
  3.  Iraq (132)
  4.  Kazakhstan (129)
  5.  Kyrgyzstan (101)
  6.  Estonia (54)
  7.  Bosnia & Herzegovina (124)
  8.  Saudi Arabia (82)
  9.  Kuwait (126)
  10.  Russia (106)

2010 [edit]

On 28 January 2010 Yale University and Columbia University released the 2010 Environmental Performance Index at the World Economic Forum ranking 163 countries.[4] The top performer for 2010 is Iceland due to its high scores on environmental public health, gets virtually all of its power from renewable sources (hydropower and geothermal energy), and its control of greenhouse gas emissions. The United States fell to the 61st position, as compared to 39th in the 2008 EPI, Brazil ranks 62nd, Russia 69th, China 121st, and India ranks 123rd.[4][8]

Top 30 countries and score[4]

  1.  Iceland 93.5
  2.  Switzerland 89.1
  3.  Costa Rica 86.4
  4.  Sweden 86.0
  5.  Norway 81.1
  6.  Mauritius 80.6
  7.  France 78.2
  8.  Austria 78.1
  9.  Cuba 78.1
  10.  Colombia 76.8
  1.  Malta 76.3
  2.  Finland 74.7
  3.  Slovakia 74.5
  4.  United Kingdom 74.2
  5.  New Zealand 73.4
  6.  Chile 73.3
  7.  Germany 73.2
  8.  Italy 73.1
  9.  Portugal 73.0
  10.  Japan 72.5
  1.  Latvia 72.5
  2.  Czech Republic 71.6
  3.  Albania 71.4
  4.  Panama 71.4
  5.  Spain 70.6
  6.  Belize 69.9
  7.  Antigua and Barbuda 69.8
  8.  Singapore 69.6
  9.  Serbia 69.4
  10.  Ecuador 69.3


2008 [edit]

On 23 January 2008 Yale University and Columbia University released the 2008 Environmental Performance Index at the World Economic Forum ranking 149 countries. The environmental experts at both universities concluded that "analysis of the drivers underlying the 2008 rankings suggests that wealth is a major determinant of environmental success".[9]

Top 30 countries and score[10]

  1.  Switzerland 95.5
  2.  Norway 93.1
  3.  Sweden 93.1
  4.  Finland 91.4
  5.  Costa Rica 90.5
  6.  Austria 89.4
  7.  New Zealand 88.9
  8.  Latvia 88.8
  9.  Colombia 88.3
  10.  France 87.8
  1.  Iceland 87.6
  2.  Canada 86.6
  3.  Germany 86.3
  4.  United Kingdom 86.3
  5.  Slovenia 86.3
  6.  Lithuania 86.2
  7.  Slovakia 86.0
  8.  Portugal 85.8
  9.  Estonia 85.2
  10.  Croatia 84.6
  1.  Japan 84.5
  2.  Ecuador 84.4
  3.  Hungary 84.2
  4.  Rwanda 84.2
  5.  Italy 84.2
  6.  Albania 84.0
  7.  Denmark 84.0
  8.  Malaysia 84.0
  9.  Russia 83.9
  10.  Chile 83.4


2006 [edit]

On 26 January 2006 Yale (YCELP) and Columbia University (CIESIN) released the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index at the World Economic Forum ranking 133 countries. It was done in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

Top 30 countries and score[11]

  1.  New Zealand 88.0
  2.  Sweden 87.8
  3.  Finland 87.0
  4.  Czech Republic 86.0
  5.  United Kingdom 85.6
  6.  Austria 85.2
  7.  Denmark 84.2
  8.  Canada 84.0
  9.  Malaysia 83.3
  10.  Ireland 83.3
  1.  Portugal 82.9
  2.  France 82.5
  3.  Iceland 82.1
  4.  Japan 81.9
  5.  Costa Rica 81.6
  6.  Switzerland 81.4
  7.  Colombia 80.4
  8.  Norway 80.2
  9.  Greece 80.2
  10.  Australia 80.1
  1.  Italy 79.8
  2.  Germany 79.4
  3.  Spain 79.2
  4.  Taiwan 79.1
  5.  Slovakia 79.1
  6.  Chile 78.9
  7.  Netherlands 78.7
  8.  United States 78.5
  9.  Cyprus 78.4
  10.  Argentina 77.7


See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Environmental Performance Index". Retrieved 2008-03-16. [dead link]
  2. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "2008 Environmental Performance Index Report". Retrieved 2008-03-18.  See Executive Summary, pp. 32-35 for a detailed comparison between the ESI 2005, the EPI 2006 and the EPI 2008.
  3. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index Main Report". p. 33. Retrieved 2007-06-17. 
  4. ^ a b c d Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "2012 Environmental Performance Index". Retrieved 2010-01-27.  See also official Press release
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "2010 EPI Rankings". Retrieved 2012-01-25. 
  6. ^ a b c d Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "EPI 2012: Summary for Policymakers". EPI Yales. Retrieved 2012-01-27. 
  7. ^ Richard Solash (2012-01-27). "Russia, Central Asian States, Iraq Last In Environmental Index". Radio Liberty Europe. Retrieved 2012-01-27. 
  8. ^ Elizabeth Rosenthal (2010-01-27). "Iceland Leads Environmental Index as U.S. Falls". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-28. 
  9. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Switzerland Tops 2008 Environmental Scorecard at World Economic Forum". Retrieved 2008-01-26. 
  10. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Environmental Performance Index 2008". Retrieved 2010-01-28. 
  11. ^ Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy / Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. "Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index". Retrieved 2007-06-17. 

External links [edit]
Quality of life
Environment
Suicide
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