Govt Rejects Environmental Performance Index 2022 That Ranked India Lowest Among 180 Countries

The ministry further claimed that the weights had been reduced against the indicators in which India performed well adding that the reasons for such change have not been explained in the report.

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New Delhi: The Union environment ministry on Wednesday rejected the Environmental Performance Index 2022, in which India was ranked at the bottom among 180 countries. The report was rebutted saying that some of the indicators it used are extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods, reported news agency PTI. 

Published by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, the index used 40 performance indicators across 11 categories to judge countries on climate change performance, environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

As per the PTI report, the environment ministryin its statement said, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022 released recently has many indicators based on unfounded assumptions. Some of these indicators used for assessing performance are extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods. 

A new indicator in the climate policy objective is 'projected GHG emissions levels in 2050'. This is computed based on the 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, the ministry said.

While rejecting the analysis it said, forests and wetlands of the country are crucial carbon sinks but 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 computation. 

The ministry further claimed that the weights had been reduced against the indicators in which India performed well adding that the reasons for such change have not been explained in the report.

For example, for black carbon growth rate indicator, India's score has improved to 100 in 2022 from 32 in 2020, whereas the overall weight of the indicator is reduced to 0.0038 in 2022 from 0.018 in 2020, it said.

"No indicator talks about renewable energy, energy efficiency and process optimisation. The selection of indicators is biased and incomplete...Per capita GHG emissions contribute only a miniscule 2.6 per cent weight overall in the index," it said.