Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Finland 1st in Enviromental Sustainablity. US 51st, UK 98th

onemonkey | 04.02.2002 13:13

Finland leads the world in environmental sustainability, according to a 142-nation study released today at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, held this year in New York. The study ranks the United States 51st, showing that a nation's economic status does not always correspond to its ESI performance. The United Arab Emirates ranked last.

The United Kingdom is an appalling 98th. The worst 'developed' country by far.

Finland Ranks Highest in Environmental Index; U.S. Lags

New Environmental Performance Study Complements Annual Sustainability Ranking


Note: Press session to be held at the World Economic Forum Monday, February 4 at 7:30am, followed by a press conference in the Inter-continental Hotel, 111 East 48th St. at Lexington Ave, at 9:00am. Report and data are available for download at www.ciesin.columbia.edu/indicators/ESI.

New York - Finland leads the world in environmental sustainability, according to a 142-nation study released today at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, held this year in New York. The study ranks the United States 51st, showing that a nation's economic status does not always correspond to its ESI performance. The United Arab Emirates ranked last.

These results emerge from the most recent update of the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), a project conducted jointly by Yale University, Columbia University, and the World Economic Forum.

In addition to the ESI, a pilot Environmental Performance Index (EPI) will also be unveiled. While the ESI takes account of environmental "endowments," current results as well as future capacity to manage environmental challenges, the EPI measures current performance on core environmental issues: air and water pollution, land protection, and greenhouse emissions.

"The ESI permits systematic cross-national environmental comparisons," says ESI Project Director Daniel Esty of Yale's Center for Environmental Law and Policy. "Environmental decision making has long been plagued by uncertainties and a lack of critical information. As a result, choices are made on the basis of generalized observations and best guesses, or worse yet, rhetoric or emotion. The ESI moves us toward a more analytically rigorous and data driven approach to environmental decision making."

According to the study, Finland ranks at the top because of its success in minimizing air and water pollution, its high institutional capacity to handle environmental problems, and its comparatively low levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States performance is uneven. The U.S. lags in controlling greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and under-performs its peers in reducing waste. Yet the United States stands at the forefront of the world in controlling water pollution and promoting robust environmental policy debates.

The ESI provides a basis for addressing a number of pressing policy questions, such as: does good environmental performance come at a price in terms of economic success? The ESI suggests not. Finland and Belgium, for example, have similar GDP per capita, but are ranked widely apart by the ESI. Finland has a $22,008 GDP per capita and a 73.7 score, while Belgium has a GDP of $24,533 per capita and scores 38.6.

"The ESI shows that a nation's economic status does not necessarily predict its environmental success," says Marc Levy of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a unit of the Columbia Earth Institute.

"Comparative analysis allows us to understand where conditions are improving and where they are deteriorating, which policies are working and which are not, and where 'best practices' might be found," says Yale's Esty.

The study's findings were based on calculations of 20 key indicators in five categories:

environmental systems,
environmental stresses,
human vulnerability to environmental risks,
a society's institutional capacity to respond to environmental threats, and
a nation's stewardship of the shared resources of the global commons.
Among the 20 indicators that comprise the ESI are factors such as urban air quality, water, and the strength of environmental regulation. The study builds on 68 underlying databases, representing the most comprehensive publicly available collection of environmental indicators in existence. Creating accessible, interdisciplinary databases for earth science research is a CIESIN specialty.

Just as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) provides a broad-gauge indicator of economic success, the ESI distills a country's capacity for sustained environmental strength into a single number ranging from 0 to100. Much like a cumulative grade point average for the environment, this number provides a comprehensive snapshot of a country's likely environmental quality of life over the next generation or two.

"No country is above average in each of the 20 indicators, nor is any country below average in all 20," notes Peter Cornelius of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow Environment Task Force. "Every country has room for improvement. No country can be said to be on a truly sustainable environmental path."

New Environmental Performance Index

As Columbia's Levy explains, "the ESI combines measures of current conditions, pressures on those conditions, human impacts, and social responses, because these factors collectively constitute the best way to gauge the prospects for long-term environmental sustainability."

To assist in measuring current environmental performance, a parallel Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was created. The EPI ranks countries according to their present air and water quality, land protection, and climate change prevention results.

"The EPI allows us to zero in precisely on efforts to manage environmental problems," says Kim Samuel-Johnson, director of the WEF Global Leaders for Tomorrow Environment Task Force. "This index measures things for which a government can clearly be held accountable. It shows how business-like emphasis on performance measurement can improve environmental results."

New Book on Environmental Measurement

Next month, Oxford University Press will publish Environmental Performance Measurement: The Global Report 2001-2002, edited by Esty and Cornelius with a chapter contributed by Levy. This volume builds on the first ESI, issued in 2001, and provides a collection of essays that make the case for data-driven environmental decision making. The book demonstrates how a more quantitative approach to environmental analysis is driving thinking in the business world, the capital markets and, increasingly, in the policy domain.

In praising the volume, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, former executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, observed, "Making good environmental decisions is always challenging. Without good data and information, it is impossible. Environmental Performance Measurement shows how comparative data can be used to drive the policy process with potentially significant results."

Maritta Koch-Weser, president of Earth 3000 and former Secretary General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), noted: "This book and its subject are a must-read. Laws, conventions, and regulations only gain value when compliance is measured. Consistent environmental performance measurement and accountability are basic ingredients in environmental stewardship the world over. Trust and compliance happen with transparency. I commend this book for advancing this cause."

In highlighting the value of Environmental Performance Measurement, Professor Andrew King of New York University's Stern School of Business said, "At last, a book that recognizes the central role information plays in environmental problems. This book is more than just a fountain of useful information. It shows how, why, and where data-driven analysis can expose profitable environmental improvements. It should be on the desk of anyone interested in the environment and business or policy–as a reference, guide, and inspiration."

onemonkey
- e-mail: indy@onemonkey.org
- Homepage: http://www.ciesin.org/indicators/ESI/index.html

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Oops! — onemonkey
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech