Environmental Performance Index Explained

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies, highlightning the degradation of the planet's life-supporting systems on which humanity depends. A world economy that continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels translates into ongoing air and water pollution, acidification of the oceans, and rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These changes threaten the survival of species already suffering from widespread habitat loss, pushing them closer to extinction. Recent analyses show that humanity has already transgressed six out of nine critical planetary boundaries that define Earth's safe operating space — and is close to crossing a seventh.

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was started in 2002 by World Economic Forum in association with the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (Yale University) and Center for International Earth Science Information Network Earth Institute (Columbia University). The biennial EPI report harnesses the latest data sets, science, and technology to provide the most comprehensive assessment of the state of sustainability around the world. In total, the 2024 EPI report incorporates 58 indicators to rank 180 countries on their progress at mitigating climate change, safeguarding ecosystem vitality, and promoting environmental health. This broad set of metrics is a powerful tool to track progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the climate mitigation targets in the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the biodiversity protection goals in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.^[1]

In 2023, the first global assessment of progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement revealed a grim picture: the world is far off track. Despite record deployment of renewable energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions keep rising. As the world enters uncharted climatic territory, there is a heightened risk of crossing irreversible tipping points in the planet's climate system.

Methodology

Over time, the methodology for the EPI has been criticized for its arbitrary choice of metrics which could introduce bias, and its poor performance as an indicator for environmental sustainability.^[2] Additional criticisms center on the EPI's lack of specific policy suggestions, and the index's weighting biases against data deficient countries that has led to the overlooking of ecological progress in developing countries.

In 2024, India was ranked at 176 in the list and rejected the low ranking. As per a statement issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), it claimed that several indicators used in the calculation were based on unfounded assumptions and unscientific methods.^{[3] [4] [5]}

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe found 3 Pros: EPI provides an easily comparable index; EPI's ecosystem vitality scores are based on six constituent policy categories: water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, and climate and energy; the referenced database yields maps for each of EPI's partial indices (normalised) and 3 Cons: CIESIN's EPI rather is an attempt to quantitatively represent the ecological performance of countries and companies; actual reasons for dysfunctionalities might need further research; EPI would be a more policy-relevant index.^[6]

As a result of these criticisms, the number of EPI indicators has increased, and their weight has changed, to provide a better data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world. The 2024 index is based on 58 performance indicators grouped into 30 issue categories with an objective of environmental health, ecosystem vitality and climate change, ranking 180 countries.

+ 2024 EPI indicators and weights (%)	Policy Objective	Wt. (%)	Issue Category	Wt. (%)	Indicator	Wt. (%)
Ecosystem Vitality	45%	Biodiversity & Habitat	25	Marine KBA Protection	12.0
				Marine Habitat Protection	12.0
				Marine Protection Stringency	2.0
				Protected Areas Representativeness Index	12.0
				Species Protection Index	16.0
				Terrestrial Biome Protection	10.0
				Terrestrial KBA Protection	10.0
				Protected Area Effectiveness	2.0
				Protected Human Land	2.0
				Red List Index	12.0
				Species Habitat Index	8.0
				Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience	2.0
		Forests	5	Primary Forest Loss	30.0
				Intact Forest Landscape Loss	30.0
				Tree cover loss weighted by permanency	25.0
				Net change in tree cover	10.0
				Forest Landscape Integrity	5.0
		Fisheries	2	Fish Stock Status	15.0
				Fish Catch Discarded	20.0
				Bottom Trawling in EEZ	25.0
				Bottom Trawling in Global Ocean	35.0
				Regional Marine Trophic Index	5.0
		Air Pollution	6	Ozone exposure KBAs	8.3
				Ozone exposure croplands	8.3
				Adj. emissions growth rate for nitrous oxides	41.7
				Adj. emissions growth rate for sulfur dioxide	41.7
		Agriculture	3	Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index	40.0
				Phosphorus Surplus	3.3
				Pesticide Pollution Risk	16.7
				Relative Crop Yield	40.0
		Water Resources	5	Wastewater generated	10.0
				Wastewater collected	40.0
				Wastewater treated	40.0
				Wastewater reused	10.0
Environmental Health	25%	Air Quality	17	Anthropogenic PM2.5 exposure	38.2
				Household solid fuels	38.2
				Ozone exposure	8.8
				NOx exposure	5.9
				SO2 exposure	2.9
				CO exposure	2.9
				VOC exposure	2.9
		Sanitation & Drinking Water	5	Unsafe sanitation	40.0
				Unsafe drinking water	60.0
		Heavy Metals	2	Lead exposure	100.0
		Waste Management	1	Waste generated per capita	40.0
				Controlled solid waste	20.0
				Waste recovery rate	40.0
Climate Change	30%	Climate Change Mitigation	30	Adjusted emissions growth rate for carbon dioxide	25.0
				CO2 growth rate (country- specific targets)	1.7
				Adjusted emissions growth rate for methane	10.0
				Adjusted emissions growth rate for F-gases	6.7
				Adjusted emissions growth rate for nitrous oxide	3.3
				Adjusted emissions growth rate for black carbon	5.0
				Net carbon fluxes due to land cover change	3.3
				GHG growth rate adjusted by emissions intensity	20.0
				GHG growth rate adjusted by per capita emissions	20.0
				Projected emissions in 2050	3.3
				Projected cumulative emissions to 2050 relative to carbon budget	1.7
Note: Wt. (%) is percent weights of overall EPI. Weights are rounded and may not add up to 100%.^[7] ^[8]

List of countries by 2024 EPI scores

The 2024 Environmental Performance Index report ranks 180 countries and territories, based on 58 performance indicators grouped into 30 issue categories. The top five countries are Estonia, Luxembourg, Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom, while the last ones are India, Myanmar, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam.^[9] Sorting is alphabetical by country code, according to ISO 3166-1 alpha-3.

+	data-sort-style="text"	Country	Region	data-sort-style="number"	Value	data-sort-style="number"	Trend	data-sort-style="number"	Rank 2024
	South Asia		data-sort-value="128"		144
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="82"		106
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="61"		47
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="91"		48
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="11"		70
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="20"		80
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="12"		37
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="42"		22
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="1"		8
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-3"		103
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-13"		138
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="49"		14
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-3"		119
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="1"		95
	South Asia		data-sort-value="23"		148
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-12"		35
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="-14"		131
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="16"		36
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="33"		75
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="87"		31
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="9"		67
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="34"		78
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="67"		44
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="26"		43
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-31"		62
	South Asia		data-sort-value="68"		89
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-18"		59
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-51"		111
	North America		data-sort-value="35"		27
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="23"		9
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="30"		57
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="56"		130
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="78"		90
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="22"		114
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="60"		109
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="9"		99
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="44"		56
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-59"		115
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-18"		117
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="2"		38
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="25"		46
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-2"		41
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="4"		16
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="43"		3
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="2"		141
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="-2"		58
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-3"		10
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="-11"		66
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="32"		98
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="70"		49
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="35"		87
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-3"		147
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="22"		21
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="149"		1
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="38"		125
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="31"		4
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-24"		75
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="16"		12
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="3"		101
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="73"		42
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="13"		5
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="62"		68
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="18"		122
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-29"		123
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="6"		120
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-5"		96
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-33"		98
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="89"		11
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="4"		76
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="-28"		140
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="23"		60
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="29"		105
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="49"		24
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="77"		124
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-13"		30
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="58"		137
	South Asia		data-sort-value="42"		149
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="28"		15
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="0"		97
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="64"		145
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="25"		18
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="6"		63
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="48"		28
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="10"		61
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="101"		68
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="42"		26
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="40"		65
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-2"		122
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="130"		91
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="0"		143
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-11"		82
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="49"		51
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="-18"		81
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="20"		151
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="79"		108
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="13"		135
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="21"		50
	South Asia		data-sort-value="18"		112
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="1"		122
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="46"		20
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="34"		2
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="12"		29
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="26"		109
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="28"		74
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="8"		146
	South Asia		data-sort-value="28"		116
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="22"		83
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="8"		94
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="12"		52
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-33"		134
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="47"		13
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-14"		150
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-5"		66
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="54"		121
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="52"		111
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-35"		133
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="29"		68
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-67"		132
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="73"		100
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-1"		85
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="73"		107
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="47"		118
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="12"		67
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="44"		13
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="33"		7
	South Asia		data-sort-value="7"		139
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="11"		32
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="129"		49
	South Asia		data-sort-value="-40"		152
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="52"		45
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="39"		73
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="4"		142
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-36"		122
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="18"		19
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="41"		25
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="7"		109
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="56"		71
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-31"		32
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-1"		72
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-3"		136
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="95"		94
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="39"		110
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="48"		86
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="65"		44
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="16"		95
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="53"		108
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="-44"		99
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-56"		55
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="18"		126
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="86"		34
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-16"		17
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="0"		23
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="2"		6
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-24"		113
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-39"		64
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="20"		127
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="-11"		129
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="45"		77
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-42"		141
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="49"		102
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="96"		54
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-73"		104
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="10"		46
	Middle East & North Africa		data-sort-value="5"		78
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-1"		53
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="56"		88
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="42"		128
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="73"		39
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="5"		84
	North America		data-sort-value="2"		33
	Europe & Central Asia		data-sort-value="-13"		93
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="8"		40
	Latin America & Caribbean		data-sort-value="11"		42
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="-37"		153
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="93"		79
	East Asia & Pacific		data-sort-value="60"		69
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="44"		92
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="39"		72
	Sub-Saharan Africa		data-sort-value="95"		48

EPI scores vs. GDP per capita, 2024

EPI scores are positively correlated with a country's wealth, although after a point, increasing wealth yields diminishing. returns. At every level of economic development, though, some countries outperform their peers while others lag. Some of the poorest countries in the world outperform some of the richest. In this regard, factors other than wealth, such as investments in human development, rule of law, and regulatory quality, are stronger predictors of environmental performance.^[10]

Wealth allows countries to make investments in the infrastructure required to provide clean drinking water, safely manage waste, and rapidly expand renewable energy. But wealth also leads to higher material consumption and its associated environmental impacts, such as higher rates of waste generation, GHG emissions, and ecosystem degradation. Many countries with high scores in some Ecosystem Vitality metrics — such as those measuring the pollution from pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture, the integrity of forest landscapes, and the use of destructive fishing methods — do so because their economies are stagnant and underdeveloped.

Developing countries must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of nations that followed a dirty and unsustainable path to industrialization. On the other hand, rich countries need to decouple their consumption from environmental degradation and use their wealth to help developing countries leapfrog to a path of truly sustainable development, preserving their biodiversity and other global commons for the benefit of all humankind.

See also

• Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI)

External links

• The Environmental Performance Index - interactive map
• The Environmental Performance Index – Center for Environmental Law & Policy

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2024 . 2024 Environmental Performance Index . New Haven, CT . Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy & Center for International Earth Science Information Network Earth Institute, Columbia University . epi.yale.edu . 2024-10-03 . 2024-10-24.
2. Kanmani . Aiyshwariya . Obringer . Renee . Rachunok . Benjamin . Nateghi . Roshanak . Assessing Global Environmental Sustainability Via an Unsupervised Clustering Framework . Sustainability . 2020-01-11 . 12 . 2 . 563 . 10.3390/su12020563 . 2024-10-24 . free.
3. News: Banerjee . Ankush . What Happened to Green India? Ranked Lowest as per Environmental Performance Index, India Disputes Methodology . Business Insider . 2024-10-24.
4. News: India's lagging sustainability performance . Hindustan Times . 2022-06-27 . en . 2024-10-24.
5. News: Roy . Esha . Explained: What is the environment index, and why has India questioned it? . The Indian Express . 2022-06-11 . en . 2024-10-24.
6. Web site: Environmental performance index EPI. Pros & Cons . United Nations Economic Commission for Europe . unece.org . 2024-10-24.
7. Web site: Block, S.; Emerson, J.W.; Esty, D.C.; de Sherbinin, A.; Wendling, Z.A. . et al. . 2024 . 2024 Environmental Performance Index. Technical Appendix . New Haven, CT . Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy . epi.yale.edu . 2024-10-03 . 2024-10-24.
8. Web site: 2024 Weights . CSV . New Haven, CT . Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy . epi.yale.edu . 2024-10-24.
9. Web site: Block, S.; Emerson, J.W.; Esty, D.C.; de Sherbinin, A.; Wendling, Z.A. . et al. . 2024 . 2024 Environmental Performance Index . New Haven, CT . Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy . epi.yale.edu . 2024-10-03 . 2024-10-24.
10. Web site: 2024 . 2024 Environmental Performance Index. Policymakers' Summary . New Haven, CT . Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy & Center for International Earth Science Information Network Earth Institute, Columbia University . epi.yale.edu . 2024-10-03 . 2024-10-24.