Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Any methodology to quantify the state of the environment at national level is never an easy task. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is developed by staff at the Yale and Columbia Universities, in collaboration with a number of agencies and individuals (listed on their website)

EPI 2008 Press Release:
The Environmental Performance Index has been released at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Wednesday, January 23 at 3:00 pm local time in the Congress Hall Press Centre. Professor Dan Esty, one of the EPI’s lead authors, discussed the 2008 EPI rankings and analysis.

This is an indicator covers a wide range of sectors and the programs are rated for their performance in each sector. Details on the weights for various parameters and the methodology is available here.

The report ranks 149 countries on 25 indicators tracked across six established policy categories: Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Habitat, Productive Natural Resources, and Climate Change. The EPI identifies broadly-accepted targets for environmental performance and measures how close each country comes to these goals. As a quantitative gauge of pollution control and natural resource management results, the Index provides a powerful tool for improving policy making and shifting environmental decision making onto firmer analytic foundations.

Among the 149 countries ranked, Switzerland ranks first and India @ 120th.