Lok Sabha Question No. 1627 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-27
Subject: Survey on Environment Performance Index
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: DUSHYANT CHAUTALA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION N0. 1627

TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.07.2018

## Survey on Environment Performance Index

## 1627. SHRI DUSHYANT CHAUTALA:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether India is among the bottom five countries on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018, plummeting 36 points from 141 in 2016, according to a biennial report by world economic Forum;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has also formulated any mechanism to conduct survey on environmental performance index within the country; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the actions taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

(a)  &  (b):  The World Economic Forum ranked 180 countries on their performance across 24 metrics aggregated into ten issue categories including environmental health, air quality, water resource  management,  biodiversity  and  habitat,  forestry,  fisheries,  agriculture,  and  climate change.  As per the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of World Economic Forum, India was  ranked  at  141 st in  2016  and  177 th position  in  2018.    An  assessment  indicates  that  the weightages  given  to  the  parameters  at  the  three  hierarchical  levels  (policy  objectives,  issue categories and indicators) are different in 2016 and 2018 iterations. The changes made have not been explained or backed by scientific arguments, and seem to be arbitrary. In 2016, the two policy objectives Environmental health and Ecosystem vitality had a weightage of 0.5 (or 50%) each; whereas in EPI 2018, it is 0.4 and 0.6 respectively. Further, for the category Air quality, the weightage given in EPI 2016 was 0.3, which has been increased by over 100% to 0.65 in EPI 2018.    In  EPI  2016,  Air  quality  figured  as  a  category  only  under  Environmental  health. However, in EPI 2018, Air quality figures under Environmental health, and there is a category Air  pollution  under  Ecosystem  vitality,  which  seems  misplaced.    Different  weightages  and difference in methodology used implies that rankings arrived at are not comparable and has its limitations.    Under  the  category  Water  resources,  the  only  indicator  shown  is  Waste  water treatment, which puts developed countries on the top since it is a measure of the capacity to address a problem.  The report relied on data gathered by NASA Satellite in place of actual monitored data.  Report has not been peer reviewed.  Countries can be ranked on the basis of different criteria pollutants with different results.

(c)  &  (d)  This  Ministry  has  not  formulated  mechanism  to  conduct  survey  on  EPI  within  the country. However, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has developed a Comprehensive  Environmental  Pollution Index (CEPI) which is a rational number  to characterise  the  environmental  quality  at  a  given  location  following  the  logarithm  of  source, pathway  and  receptor.    The  Index  captures  various  health  dimensions  of  environment including air, water and land.  CPCB has done a nation-wide environmental assessment of industrial clusters based on CEPI and 43 such industrial clusters having CEPI greater than 70, on a scale of 0 to 100, has been identified as critically polluted.

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