Costa Rica has ranked third with a score of 86.4 in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), behind Switzerland in second place and first place Iceland with a score of 93.5.
The EPI ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality.
These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals. The EPI’s proximity-to-target methodology facilitates cross-country comparisons as well as analysis of how the global community is doing collectively on each particular policy issue.
In Central America, Nicaragua placed 93rd, Panama placed 24th, El Salvador 33rd, Honduras 118th and Guatemala 105th.
The United States places 61st in the 2010 EPI, with strong results on some issues, such as provision of safe drinking water and forest sustainability, and weak performance on other issues including greenhouse gas emissions and several aspects of local air pollution.
Of the newly industrialized nations, China and India rank 121st and 123rd respectively – reflecting the strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment. However, Brazil and Russia rank 62nd and 69th, suggesting that the level of development is just one of many factors affecting placement in the rankings.
For the full report go to: _http://epi.yale.edu/_
Source: www.insidecostarica.com