India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is among the nations with the lowest air quality, projected emissions, and biodiversity rankings in the 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which was published on June 5.
India ranked 176th out of 180 nations in the overall rating, only behind Pakistan, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Compared to the previous EPI, where India stood at the bottom, this is a slight improvement.
A new category for biodiversity and habitat was added to the EPI this year, and the results showed the worrying encroachment of buildings and croplands into protected areas. Under three primary categories—ecosystem vitality, environmental health, and climate change—the index now assesses 58 variables, including waste management, air and water quality, emission growth rates, and predicted emissions. These metrics give an indication of how near a country is to set environmental policy aims at the national level.
Among these, India managed to avoid the bottom ten only in the climate change category.
India came up at position 177 for air quality, barely above Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. It comes in at number 172 for anticipated emissions by 2025. The nation’s over reliance on coal has contributed significantly to both the disturbingly high levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which has resulted in the country performing poorly in a number of indexes.
Additionally, India ranked 178th in the biodiversity and habitat category, just above China and Micronesia, though the report speculated that this could be the result of missing data. A thorough evaluation of India’s performance in this category is impossible since 95% of its submissions to the World Database of Protected Areas are restricted to China, Turkey, and India.
Positively, the country did better in the category of climate change, coming in at number 133, owing to large expenditures in renewable energy and its audacious plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. To accomplish these aims, the report indicates, India will require an extra $160 billion in annual investments for climate change mitigation.
India performed comparatively better in sectors including agriculture, forestry, and solid waste management. But its dismal rankings in biodiversity, pollution, and air quality significantly dragged its overall standing.
