Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: EPI
Mains level: India's EPI and various loopholes in its climate action policy
India has secured 168 ranks in the 12th edition of the biennial Environment Performance Index (EPI Index 2020).
CSP 2019 has been a year with two questions based on rankings and indices viz. the EoDB index and Global Competitiveness Index. Note all such indices and their publishing agencies here at [Prelims Spotlight] Important reports and indexes
About EPI
- The EPI measures the environmental performance of 180 countries.
- It is biennially released by the Yale University.
- It considers 32 indicators of environmental performance, giving a snapshot of the 10-year trends in environmental performance at the national and global levels.
The performance on climate change was assessed based on the following indicators —
- Adjusted emission growth rates;
- Composed of growth rates of four greenhouse gases and one pollutant;
- Growth rate in carbon dioxide emissions from land cover;
- Greenhouse gas intensity growth rate; and
- Greenhouse gas emissions per capita.
Performance of the South Asian Region
- The 11 countries lagging behind India were — Burundi, Haiti, Chad, Solomon Islands, Madagascar, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Liberia.
- All South Asian countries, except Afghanistan, were ahead of India in the ranking.
India’s performance
- A ten-year comparison progress report in the index showed that India slipped on climate-related parameters.
- India scored below the regional average score on all five key parameters on environmental health, including air quality, sanitation and drinking water, heavy metals and waste management.
- It has also scored below the regional average on parameters related to biodiversity and ecosystem services too.
- Among South Asian countries, India was at the second position (rank 106) after Pakistan on ‘climate change’. Pakistan’s score (50.6) was the highest under the category.
Remarks for India
- The report indicated that black carbon, carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse emissions per capita increased in 10 years.
- India needs to re-double national sustainability efforts on all fronts, according to the index.
- It needs to focus on a wide spectrum of sustainability issues, with a high-priority to critical issues such as air and water quality, biodiversity and climate change.
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