"India's
low rank on the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) should be a
wake-up call to Indian political leaders at all levels," said Daniel C
Esty, Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.
"India
faces significant pollution control and natural resource management
challenges and its lagging results suggest the need for redoubled policy
efforts across the board," Esty said after the release of the second
annual report of the Yale University in Davos early this week.
According
to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index, Switzerland leads the
world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management
challenge.
The report has been produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
Latvia,
Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica round out the top five positions in
the 2012 EPI, which ranks 132 countries based on 22 indicators across 10
major policy categories including air and water pollution, climate
change, biodiversity, and forest management.
Besides
India, among the emerging economies, China ranks 116th, reflecting the
strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment.
Brazil
ranks 30th, however, suggesting that a concerted focus on
sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends and that the
level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting
environmental performance, the report said.
The
United States places 49th in the 2012 EPI, with strong results on some
issues, such as water and air pollution management, but weak performance
on others, including greenhouse gas emissions and renewable electricity
generation.
This
ranking puts the US significantly behind other industrialized nations,
including France (6th), the United Kingdom (9th), Germany (11th), and
Japan (23rd).
In
addition, the US ranks 77th in the Trend EPI rankings, suggesting that
little progress has been made on environmental challenges over the last
ten years.
No comments:
Post a Comment