(17 February 2016) – The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a project led by Yale University, ranks countries’ performance on high-priority environmental issues in two areas: protection of human health and protection of ecosystems.
Within these two policy objectives the EPI scores national performance in nine issue areas: health impacts, air quality, water and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, climate and energy.
EPI indicators measure country proximity to meeting internationally established targets or, in the absence of agreed targets, how nations compare to one another.
The 2016 ranking is surprising: Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Malta and France – all European countries – are on top of a list of 180 countries.