Lok Sabha Question No. 1321 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-06
Subject: Environment Performance Index
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Behanan Benny

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1321

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.12.2021

## Environmental Performance Index

## 1321.  SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

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

- (a) Whether the ministry has taken cognizance of the Environment Performance Index which in its most recent report gives India a rank of 168 out of 180 countries;
- (b) If so, the Government's response to the same;
- (c) Whether the Government has identified the reason for India's poor performance on the index; and
- (d) If so, the details thereof and if not the reasons therefore?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a) to (d)

The government is aware of EPI (Environmental Performance Index) on which the most recent report has been released in June 2020 by Yale and Columbia Universities with support from The McCall MacBain Foundation. The data for scoring come from third-party sources.  Hence  the  report  needs  to  be  interpreted  in  proper  perspective  as  it  is  based  on different methodologies which involve various assumptions and uncertainties.The metrics on which the 2020 rankings are based are from a variety of sources and represent available data from 2017 or 2018. Thus the analysis does not reflect the recent developments and initiatives for improvement of environment.

EPI  2020  ranks  180  countries  on  policy  objectives  of  environmental  health  and ecosystem  vitality  using  32  performance  indicators  across  11  issue  categories  like  Air Quality, Climate Change, etc. The EPI rank of India in 2020 was analysed vis a   vis its rank in 2018. There was improvement in rank by 9 places in 2020 vis a  vis 2018. This was mainly due to increase in India's rank in Environmental Health objective.

It has been observed that the constituent parameters of the Index vary from one edition of the index to another. Hence the ranking is not strictly comparable over time.

With  the  growing  concerns  on  air  pollution,  the  Central  Government  has  launched National  Clean  Air  Programme  (NCAP)  under  the  Central  Sector  'Control  of  Pollution' Scheme as a long-term, time-bound, national level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner with targets to achieve 20 % to 30 % reduction in  PM10  and  PM2.5  concentrations  by  2024  keeping  2017  as  the  base  year  for  the comparison  of  concentrations.Similarly,  important initiatives  have  been  undertaken  to address environmental problems of water pollution, land degradation and biodiversity loss.

The  Government  has  taken  several steps for mitigation of pollution which  include introduction  of  BS-VI  norms  for  fuel  and  vehicles  since  April,  2020,  promotion  of  Evehicles, stringent emission norms for industries including coal based Thermal Power Plants (TPPs), cleaner fuel such as PNG, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic and ewaste management, real time monitoring of major industrial sectors. Tree plantation efforts have been intensified under Green India Mission, National Afforestation Program and Nagar Van Yojana. Compensatory afforestation is carried out for offsetting the loss of forest and tree cover in respect of various developmental projects. Thesereforms would have a long term impact but do not seem to have been fully reflected in the EPI indicators.

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