India's worst performance in the environment index, lowest among 180 countries

New Delhi, Dt

India is at the bottom of the list of 180 countries in a US-based index of environmental performance, while European country Denmark is at the top. India has outperformed Pakistan in the 203 Environmental Performance Index, recently released by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network. Along with India, China's performance in this index is also poor.

Denmark tops the list of 204 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) published by US-based institutes, followed by Britain and Finland. These countries have been ranked in the top three due to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. According to the report, for the first time, India has been placed at the bottom of the list due to dangerous levels of air quality and rapidly rising emissions of greenhouse gases.

While preparing EPI, 20 performance indicators have been used and it has been divided into 11 categories. These indicators show that a country is still far from certain policy goals for the environment. Based on this, the ranking of 180 countries in the index is determined on the basis of climate change performance, environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

In the latest index, India has got the lowest score of 12.5 out of 180 countries. Apart from this, Myanmar (12.5), Vietnam (20.1), Bangladesh (8.1) and Pakistan (7.8) are also among the worst performing countries in achieving environmental policy targets. Poor rankings show that these countries have given more importance to economic growth than environmental sustainability. China is also ranked 141st in the index with a score of 7.5. The United States ranks 7th among the 7 richest democracies in the West, while it ranks 7th in the entire list. According to the EPI report, the ranking of the United States has declined due to the neglect of environmental protection during the Trump administration. Russia ranks 114th on the list.

According to the latest index, India is at the bottom of the rankings for the first time with rapidly becoming dangerous air quality and rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers claim that despite recent promises to curb emissions growth, China and India are likely to become the world's second-largest emitters of greenhouse gases by 2020. According to the report, only a handful of countries, including Denmark and Britain, are now set to reach a cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Leading countries like China, India and Russia are rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions and many other countries are moving in the wrong direction. Russia ranks 114th on the list. According to EPI estimates, if the current trend continues, only four countries - China, India, the US and Russia - will be responsible for more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.