look news india
Despite the Central government's claims of improving the environment, India has been ranked among the five worst countries in the world in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of 180 countries prepared by two leading US organisations.
India is only ahead of Myanmar, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam. India is ranked 176th in the 2024 Environmental Performance Index released this month, moving up five places from last. However, this rank reflects an improvement of five places compared to 2022, as in 2022 India was ranked 180th, i.e. last. Estonia, which has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent in the last 10 years, tops this ranking. The EPI, prepared every two years since 2000 by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, ranks 180 countries on various green parameters. India's ranking has been falling steadily since 2012. From 2000 to 2012, India was ranked 122nd to 127th. India is ranked 176th this year after being ranked 177th in 2018, 168th in 2020 and 180th in 2022.
India has made some improvement in environmental performance but is still at the bottom, which may be due to better performance by other countries. Sebastian Block, a researcher at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and principal investigator of the EPI Index 2024, said that the rank of a country depends on the scores of other countries. If other countries have improved better and faster, then the ranking of a country may fall despite improved performance.