25-Jul-2022: Environmental Performance Index 2022 does not consider several important indicators of sustainable consumption and production
The report on Environmental Performance Index 2022prepared by researchers at Yale University and Columbia University has drawn conclusions about countries with respect to their environmental health, ecosystem vitality and Climate Change related policy based on metrics with several parameters that are unscientific and subjective.
For instance, the indicator Projected Emission levels in 2050 under the Climate Change Policy objective indicator is computed based on average rate of change in emission of the last 10 years instead of modelling that takes into account a longer time period, extent of renewable energy capacity and use, additional carbon sinks, energy efficiency etc. of respective countries whereas Fig 1 of the said report based on Global Carbon Budget 2021, itself shows that India has one of the lowest emission trajectories vis a vis other Countries. Hence, without factoring in this aspect, the use of biased metrics has resulted in a low rank. Further, the above parameter has a weight of nearly 14% in the index vis a vis an equity based indicator like GHG emission per capita with a weight of only 1%.
This shows that the methodology used in the EPI ranking suffers from many discrepancies including inter alia no specific rationale for weightage assigned to indicators, a flawed model to compute parameters like projected emissions where carbon removals are not accounted for and absence of important parameters of sustainability like energy efficiency or indicators that truly capture ecosystem productivity.
The index factors in the extent of ecosystems but the regulatory, provisioning as well as cultural services provided by various ecosystems contributing to productivity like forests, wetlands, croplands are not assessed and reflected in performance.
With only two indicators under the Agriculture issue category, the efforts of India or other developing countries towards the improvement of their agricultural sector and practices such as Agro biodiversity, water use efficiency and soil health are not reflected in the index. Similarly, there are no indicators of Renewable Energy efficiency or installed capacity to measure the factor of sustainable or efficient energy use of a country. Thus the index does not consider several important indicators of sustainable consumption and production.
24-Jan-2018: India ranks 177 out of 180 in Environmental Performance Index
India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by Yale and Columbia Universities along with the World Economic Forum.
While India is at the bottom of the list in the environmental health category, it ranks 178 out of 180 as far as air quality is concerned. Its overall low ranking — 177 among 180 countries — was linked to poor performance in the environment health policy and deaths due to air pollution categories.
The report was released on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It said deaths attributed to ultra-fine PM2.5 pollutants have risen over the past decade and are estimated at 1,640,113 annually in India.
Switzerland leads the world in sustainability, followed by France, Denmark, Malta and Sweden in the EPI, which found that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health.
Overall, India (at 177) and Bangladesh (179) come in near the bottom of the rankings, with Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nepal rounding out the bottom five.
Despite government action, pollution from solid fuels, coal and crop residue burning, and emissions from motor vehicles continue to severely degrade the air quality for millions of Indians.
The 10th EPI report ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Of the emerging economies, China and India rank 120 and 177 respectively, reflecting the strain population pressures and rapid economic growth impose on the environment.
In 2016, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that diseases related to airborne pollutants contributed to two-thirds of all life-years lost to environmentally related deaths and disabilities.