🚀 go-pugleaf

As usual, Scandinavian countries rank highest in sustainability.
Switzerland is among the firsts too and so is Canada and Costa Rica.
The Americanus Raptor though, also as expected, ranks very low at 45th
place. Surprisingly though Germany is behind at 50th, and, of course,
Russia and China are even lower at 72nd and 129th respectively... :(

Nordics rank highest in environmental index
Finland, Norway and Sweden lead the world in environmental
sustainability, according to a 142-nation study released at the 2002
meeting of the World Economic Forum

Nordics do better in environmental sustainability

You may have heard that Stockholm is the cleanest capital in the
world, that Finland leads in sustainable forest management or that
Norway is one of the world's leading renewable energy suppliers.

"The Nordic countries rank highest in environmental sustainability".
These are the conclusions from the most recent update of the
Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), a project conducted jointly
by Yale University (USA), Columbia University (USA), and the World
Economic Forum.

According to a 142 nation study released at the 2002 meeting of the
World Economic Forum in New York, Finland leads the world in
environmental sustainability, followed by Norway and Sweden in second
and third place respectively. Nordic neighbours Iceland rank eighth on
the list and the Baltic republic of Latvia climbs up to an excellent
tenth place.


Respect for the environment

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

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.


Cross-National comparisons

The ESI takes account of environmental "endowments", current results
as well as future capacity to manage environmental challenges. "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."

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 to 100. 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.

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.


The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)

2002 ESI rankings 

Rank Country ESI 
1 Finland 73.9 
2 Norway 73.0 
3 Sweden 72.6 
4 Canada 70.6 
5 Switzerland 66.5 
6 Uruguay 66.0 
7 Austria 64.2 
8 Iceland 63.9 
9 Costa Rica 63.2 
10 Latvia 63.0 

The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) is a measure of overall
progress towards environmental sustainability, developed for 142
countries.

The ESI is the result of collaboration among the World Economic
Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow Environment Task Force, The Yale
Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and the Columbia University
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

The ESI scores are based upon a set of 20 core indicators, each of
which combines two to eight variables for a total of 68 underlying
variables. The ESI permits cross-national comparisons of environmental
progress in a systematic and quantitative fashion.

http://www.scandinavica.com/culture...sustainable.htm

all countries...

http://www.ciesin.org/indicators/ESI/rank.html

http://committed.to/justiceforpeace