UK ranked fifth best in world green list
· International league table headed by New Zealand
· Report stirs controversy among environmentalists
John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday January 24, 2006
The Guardian
The UK has been ranked fifth best in the world at tackling domestic and global environmental problems, according to the first performance league tables, which will be launched this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The tables, produced by international scientists and researchers from Yale and Columbia universities in the US, ranked 133 countries according to how they tried to tackle 16 global and domestic problems and met domestic and world targets.
New Zealand came top, followed by Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. The report said the world's poorest countries, mainly in Africa, came bottom largely because their governments had no resources to address the mounting problems of drinking water, indoor air pollution, sanitation and loss of forests.
The pilot list, which is based on environmental health and habitat quality indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, park protection, and air and water quality, found major differences between countries with similar legacies of pollution, resource degradation and wealth.
"Good governance emerges as as a critical driver of environmental performance," the report said.
Gus Speth, dean of the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental studies, warned that America's performance, ranked 28th, was of global concern. "The lagging performance of the US on environmental issues, particularly on energy and climate change, signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world."
The US had the best water quality in the world, but was ranked low on energy. On individual issues, the UK scored highly on environmental health but did not score highly on greenhouse gas emissions, or air quality.
The lead author, Daniel Esty of Yale university, said Britain ranked 65th in terms of sustainability last year largely because it had cut down most of its forests several hundred years ago, but it was marked highly when it came to performance, because it had good policies in place to protect what it had left. "We are not saying Britain is perfect, but compared to other countries it is doing well," he said.
Margaret Beckett, Britain's secretary of state for the environment, yesterday welcomed the report. "It shows that the UK's efforts to put sustainability into practice are delivering effectively."
But Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, urged caution: "We should not see this as vindication for British policies. You would expect a rich country like the UK to have high-quality water but in so many areas the UK is going in the wrong direction. Waste is going up, and so are UK greenhouse gas emissions."
The report, which complements a "sustainability" index devised last year by the same universities, admits major data gaps and "serious scientific uncertainties" about countries' waste and recycling, exposure to toxic chemicals, wetlands loss and soil erosion, but the authors said it showed accurately which way countries were heading. "It shows how governments have played the environmental hands they have been dealt," Mr Esty said.
The report measured greenhouse gas emissions against economic performance leaving the US, which produces more than a quarter of world emissions, well ahead of rapidly developing countries such as India, China and Russia.
League tables The good, the bad and the underperforming
Overall top 10 by EPI Score
1 New Zealand 88.0
2 Sweden 87.8
3 Finland 87.0
4 Czech Republic 86.0
5 United Kingdom 85.6
6 Austria 85.2
7 Denmark 84.2
8 Canada 84.0
9 Malaysia 83.3
10 Ireland 83.3
--------------------------------------------------
28 United States 78.5
Overall bottom 10
133 Niger 25.7
132 Chad 30.5
131 Mauritania 32.0
130 Mali 33.9
129 Ethiopia 36.7
128 Angola 39.3
127 Pakistan 41.1
126 Burkina Faso 43.2
125 Bangladesh 43.5
124 Sudan 44.0
Top 5 Environmental health
1 Sweden 99.4
2 France 99.2
3 Australia 99.0
4 United Kingdom 98.9
5 Finland 98.8
--------------------------------------------------
13 United States 98.3
guardian.co.uk
· International league table headed by New Zealand
· Report stirs controversy among environmentalists
John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday January 24, 2006
The Guardian
The UK has been ranked fifth best in the world at tackling domestic and global environmental problems, according to the first performance league tables, which will be launched this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The tables, produced by international scientists and researchers from Yale and Columbia universities in the US, ranked 133 countries according to how they tried to tackle 16 global and domestic problems and met domestic and world targets.
New Zealand came top, followed by Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. The report said the world's poorest countries, mainly in Africa, came bottom largely because their governments had no resources to address the mounting problems of drinking water, indoor air pollution, sanitation and loss of forests.
The pilot list, which is based on environmental health and habitat quality indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, park protection, and air and water quality, found major differences between countries with similar legacies of pollution, resource degradation and wealth.
"Good governance emerges as as a critical driver of environmental performance," the report said.
Gus Speth, dean of the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental studies, warned that America's performance, ranked 28th, was of global concern. "The lagging performance of the US on environmental issues, particularly on energy and climate change, signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world."
The US had the best water quality in the world, but was ranked low on energy. On individual issues, the UK scored highly on environmental health but did not score highly on greenhouse gas emissions, or air quality.
The lead author, Daniel Esty of Yale university, said Britain ranked 65th in terms of sustainability last year largely because it had cut down most of its forests several hundred years ago, but it was marked highly when it came to performance, because it had good policies in place to protect what it had left. "We are not saying Britain is perfect, but compared to other countries it is doing well," he said.
Margaret Beckett, Britain's secretary of state for the environment, yesterday welcomed the report. "It shows that the UK's efforts to put sustainability into practice are delivering effectively."
But Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, urged caution: "We should not see this as vindication for British policies. You would expect a rich country like the UK to have high-quality water but in so many areas the UK is going in the wrong direction. Waste is going up, and so are UK greenhouse gas emissions."
The report, which complements a "sustainability" index devised last year by the same universities, admits major data gaps and "serious scientific uncertainties" about countries' waste and recycling, exposure to toxic chemicals, wetlands loss and soil erosion, but the authors said it showed accurately which way countries were heading. "It shows how governments have played the environmental hands they have been dealt," Mr Esty said.
The report measured greenhouse gas emissions against economic performance leaving the US, which produces more than a quarter of world emissions, well ahead of rapidly developing countries such as India, China and Russia.
League tables The good, the bad and the underperforming
Overall top 10 by EPI Score
1 New Zealand 88.0
2 Sweden 87.8
3 Finland 87.0
4 Czech Republic 86.0
5 United Kingdom 85.6
6 Austria 85.2
7 Denmark 84.2
8 Canada 84.0
9 Malaysia 83.3
10 Ireland 83.3
--------------------------------------------------
28 United States 78.5
Overall bottom 10
133 Niger 25.7
132 Chad 30.5
131 Mauritania 32.0
130 Mali 33.9
129 Ethiopia 36.7
128 Angola 39.3
127 Pakistan 41.1
126 Burkina Faso 43.2
125 Bangladesh 43.5
124 Sudan 44.0
Top 5 Environmental health
1 Sweden 99.4
2 France 99.2
3 Australia 99.0
4 United Kingdom 98.9
5 Finland 98.8
--------------------------------------------------
13 United States 98.3
guardian.co.uk
