Explained: What is the Environment Performance Index and why has India rejected it?

Despite government's issues with the Index, experts suggested that the Centre should look at the 'very real' concerns raised in the EPI

The recently released Environment Performance Index 2022, which lists countries based on the environmental performance of their policies, ranked India the lowest among 180 countries, after Vietnam (178), Bangladesh (177), and Pakistan (176). This did not sit well with the Centre. The Environment Ministry questioned the ranking stating that some of the indicators it used were "extrapolated" and based on "surmises and unscientific methods".

Here's a look at what the index is and what it represents.

What is the Environment Performance Index?

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), published recently by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies. The 2022 EPI provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world.

Using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the 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.

The EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future.

What is the point of it?

The overall EPI rankings indicate which countries are best addressing the environmental challenges that every nation faces.

It provides a way to spot problems, set targets, track trends, understand outcomes, and identify best policy practices. Data and fact-based analysis can also help government officials refine their policy agendas, facilitate communications with key stakeholders, and maximise the return on environmental investments.

The EPI also offers a powerful policy tool in support of efforts to meet the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to move society toward a sustainable future.

The 2022 EPI supports evolving climate policy discussions with a new indicator that projects countries’ progress towards net-zero emissions in 2050

How poorly did India fair?

With an overall score of 18.9, India ranks at the bottom of all countries in the 2022 EPI with low scores across a range of critical issues. Deteriorating air quality and rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions pose especially urgent challenges, the report read.

Most low-scoring countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam, are those that have prioritised economic growth over sustainability, or those that are struggling with civil unrest and other crises. China and India are projected to be the largest and second-largest emitters of greenhouse gases in 2050, despite recently promising to curb emission growth rates, the researchers claimed.

Why is the Centre questioning EPI?

In a statement rejecting the analysis, the Environment Ministry said, “A new indicator in the climate policy objective is 'projected GHG emissions levels in 2050'. This is computed based on the 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," it said.

Forests and wetlands of the country are crucial carbon sinks but have not been factored in while computing the projected GHG emissions trajectory up to 2050 given by EPI 2022. Historical data on the lowest emission trajectory has been ignored in the computation, it said.

"The index computes the extent of ecosystems but not their condition or productivity. It did not include indicators like agro biodiversity, soil health, food loss and waste even though they are important for developing countries with large agrarian populations."

The ministry added that the weight of the indicators in which India performed well has been reduced and the reasons for such change have not been explained in the report.

How real are the issues that have been flagged?

Despite the issues with the Index, experts state that the environmental concerns that have been flagged in the EPI are very much real. Speaking to The Indian Express, IIT Delhi professor and air pollution expert Dr Sagnik Dey said that the government should not ignore the fact that India was at 168th rank in 2020 and has never been in the top 150 countries since the index was started.

Dr Navroz Dubash of the Centre for Policy Research, among the authors of the latest report of the International Report on Climate Change (IPCC) concurred, stating that India does have severe local environmental issues, which have been highlighted in the report and need to be addressed.

“Much smaller and poorer countries have done better. I don’t think we should get carried away by only the rank. If other countries perform poorer, India’s rank will improve. It is vital to focus on sustainable developmental pathways we need to immediately adopt.” said Dr Ravi Chellam, Coordinator, Biodiversity Collaborative speaking to the newspaper.

(With inputs from PTI)