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.
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 168th in EPI-2020, with a score of 27.6. In EPI-2020, Denmark has been ranked first in environmental health and sustainability. 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,’’says the EPI report.