Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2026

 The 2026 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) has ranked Estonia first globally with an overall score of 74.79. India was ranked 176th out of 177 countries, placing it second from the bottom with a score of 22.46.

Key Findings

• Estonia topped the 2026 EPI with a score of 74.79.
• Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands occupied the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions, respectively.
• Five European countries occupied the top five positions.
• India ranked 176th, ahead of only one country, among 177 countries assessed.
• India’s overall score was 22.46.

About the Environmental Performance Index

• The EPI is a data-driven global ranking that evaluates countries on their environmental performance.
• The 2026 edition assesses 177 countries using 47 indicators grouped into 12 issue categories.
• These indicators broadly cover three major dimensions:
  1. Climate change
  2. Ecosystem vitality
  3. Environmental health
• The EPI is developed by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions, with support from the McCall MacBain Foundation.

India and EPI

• India has consistently expressed concerns about the methodology used in the EPI.
• In 2022, when India was ranked 180th out of 180 countries, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change rejected the ranking.
• The Ministry had argued that several indicators were based on unfounded assumptions, while some were derived through extrapolation and methods it considered unscientific.

Source: IE

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