The list of the top 10 greenest countries was compiled from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).  The development of the EPI was joint effort between Yale University (Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy) and Columbia University (Center for International Earth Science Information Network) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.  

“The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (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.” 

According to the latest EPI results with a score out of 100, these are the top 10 greenest countries (click on the country to see their EPI score breakdown): 

1. Iceland – EPI score: 93.5
2. Switzerland – EPI score: 89.1
3. Costa Rica – EPI score:  86.4
4. Sweden – EPI score: 86.0
5. Norway – EPI score: 81.1
6. Mauritius – EPI score: 80.6
7. France – EPI score: 78.2
8. Austria – EPI score: 78.1
9. Cuba – EPI score: 78.1
10. Colombia – EPI score: 76.8 

Iceland bumped Switzerland from the #1 spot they held in 2008 as the top greenest country in 2010 due to its high scores on environmental public health and generating nearly all of its power from renewable sources (hydropower and geothermal energy), plus its control of greenhouse gas emissions. The United States fell to the 61st position, as compared to 39th in the 2008 EPI, Canada ranked 46th (12th in 2008), Russia 69th, China 121st, and India 123rd.  The bottom 5 is 159th Togo, 160th Angola, 161st Mauritania, 162nd Central African Republic, and at the bottom in 163rd is Sierra Leone with an EPI score of 32.1.  You can view the full list of all 163 countries here. 

The EPI Indicators assessed in the ranking covers environmental health (water, air pollution, environmental burden of disease) and ecosystem vitality (climate change, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, biodiversity and habitat, air pollution, water).  Ranging from CO2 emissions to water quality to pesticide regulations, many variables are taken into consideration.  Refer to the pie graph below. 

courtesty of http://epi.yale.edu

Both Canada and the US fell considerably from their 2008 EPI ranking.  Let’s hope the next set of EPI results of the greenest countries sees remarkable improvement in North America.
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