EU countries perform well in Environmental Performance Index

In the 2006 pilot Environmental Performance Index (EPI) presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos today, all EU countries covered are within the top 40 for environmental performance and seven of the top ten were EU countries (Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, UK, Austria, Denmark and Ireland). The EPI is based on sixteen indicators in six policy categories : environmental health, air quality, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources, sustainable energy. The EPI, developed jointly by Yale and Columbia Universities, the World Economic Forum and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, aims to strengthen the environmental dimension of the Millennium Development Goals, by providing a robust method to quantify the problem and measure progress. It highlights that fact that industrialised nations have the resources to devote to environmental protection but their economic activities create pressure on ecosystems, while the other side of the coin is that developing countries may have relatively pristine ecosystems, but face difficulties with basic environmental infrastructure such as drinking water and sanitation. The top-ranking countries all commit significant resources and effort to environmental protection. The 2006 EPI can be found at www.yale.edu/epi

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