Environment Performance Index (EPI)-2022

In news- The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) issued a rebuttal recently to the findings of the biennial EPI- 2022 after it ranked India at the bottom of the list of 180 countries that it assessed.

About the Environmental Performance Index (EPI)-

ERI is an international ranking system of countries’ environmental health and sustainability.
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.
The EPI 2022 is produced jointly by the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy and the Columbia University Earth Institute.
Funding from the McCall MacBain Foundation of Canada supports the EPI work at both Yale and Columbia.
Using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality.
Denmark was ranked first followed by the UK, Finland and Malta in 2022.
As per the index, Deteriorating air quality and rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions pose especially urgent challenges.

MoEF & CC objections to indicators- The MoEF&CC issued a statement saying that many of the indicators used by EPI 2022 are “based on unfounded assumptions”. With a score of 18.9, India is ranked below Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar — the other poorest performers on the index.

The Ministry of Environment does not accept its analysis and conclusions for the following reasons: –

The Projected GHG Emissions levels in 2050 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.
Both forests and wetlands of the country are crucial carbon sinks which have not been factored in while computing the projected GHG emissions trajectory upto 2050.
Historical data on the lowest emission trajectory has been ignored in the above computation.
The weight of indicators in which the country was performing well has been reduced and reasons for change in assignment of weights has not been explained in the report.
The principle of equity is given very low weightage in the form of indicators like GHG emission per capita and GHG Emission intensity trend.
The CBDR-RC principle is also barely reflected in the composition of the index.
India has already achieved the target of 40% of installed electricity capacity from non- fossil fuel based sources.
The indicators on Water quality, Water use efficiency, Waste Generation per capita which are closely linked to Sustainable Consumption and Production are not included in the Index.
The Index emphasizes the extent of Protected Areas rather than the quality of protection that they afford. Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Protected areas and eco-sensitive regions is not factored into the computation of Biodiversity Indices.
Again the index computes the extent of ecosystems but not their condition or productivity.
Indicators like Agro biodiversity, soil health, food loss and waste are not included even though they are important for developing countries with large agrarian populations.