India rebuts Environment Performance Index 2022 findings, says indicators are 'extrapolated'

After being ranked at the bottom of the Environment Performance Index (EPI), India has rebutted the findings of the analysis saying its indicators are "extrapolated" and based on "unfounded assumptions".

In a statement issued on Wednesday, India's Environment Ministry said the country does not accept the EPI analysis as "some of these indicators used for assessing performance are extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods."

The EPI is an analysis by researchers of Yale and Columbia University which provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world.

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India ranked at the bottom with a total score of 18.9, while Denmark was the top scorer as the world’s most sustainable country.

Rejecting the findings, the environment ministry, said that India has already achieved the target of 40 percent of installed electricity capacity from non- fossil fuel-based sources.

"No indicator talks about the renewable energy, energy efficiency and process optimization. The selection of indicators is biased and incomplete," the ministry said.

Noting that the EPI has a new indicator in the Climate Policy objective which is 'Projected GHG Emissions levels in 2050', the Indian ministry said that "it is computed based on average rate of change in emission of the last 10 years instead of modelling that takes into account a longer time period, extent of renewable energy capacity and use, additional carbon sinks, energy efficiency etc. of respective countries."

It said that both forests and wetlands of the country are crucial carbon sinks which have not been factored in while computing the projected GHG emissions trajectory up to 2050 given by EPI 2022.

"Historical data on the lowest emission trajectory has been ignored in the above computation. The weight of indictors in which the country was performing well has been reduced and reasons for change in assignment of weights has not been explained in the report," India said.

The ministry said that the principle of equity is given very low weightage in the form of the indicators like GHG emission per capita and GHG emission intensity trend.

The CBDR-RC (Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities) principle is also barely reflected in the composition of the index, India said.

"The indicators on water quality, water use efficiency, waste generation per capita which are closely linked to sustainable consumption and production are not included in the Index," the ministry said.
Pointing out the flaws in the analysis, India said that the Index emphasizes the extent of Protected Areas rather than the quality of protection that they afford.

"Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Protected areas and eco-sensitive regions is not factored into the computation of Biodiversity Indices.

"Again, the index computes extent of ecosystems but not their condition or productivity. Efforts must be made to include metrics that truly capture ecosystem productivity such that regulatory, provisioning as well as cultural services provided by various ecosystems like forests, wetlands, croplands are assessed and reflected in performance," it said.

It also pointed out that indicators like agro-biodiversity, soil health, food loss and waste are not included even though they are important for developing countries with large agrarian populations.

"India is party to Paris Agreement and has given a goal of NET ZERO by 2070 and hence comparing it to countries with projected 2050 emissions level in 2050 equal to or below zero receiving the maximum score is against the principle of Equity as enshrined in CBDR-RC," the ministry said.

Using 40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close the countries are to established environmental policy targets.

The United States placed at the 20th spot of the 22 wealthy democracies in the global west and 43rd overall.

The lowest scores went to India (18.9), Myanmar (19.4), Vietnam (20.1), Bangladesh (23.1) and Pakistan (24.6).

Most low-scoring countries are those that have prioritized economic growth over sustainability, or those that are struggling with civil unrest and other crises. India, with increasingly dangerous air quality and rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions, falls to the bottom of rankings for the first time, the report read.
China is placed 161st, with an overall EPI score of 28.4.

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