SL ranked highest in South Asia in environmental Performance Index of Yale University
View(s):Sri Lanka has been ranked 69th in 2014 in Yale University’s EPI which is a Global Environment Assessment index.
“It stands in sharp contrast to its regional neighbours India (155) Bangladesh (169) and Pakistan (148) in the EPI which is an exhaustive environmental impact assessment study made annually by the Yale University USA,” according to an environment news release forwarded to the media by local ad/PR agency Cameron Pale and Medina.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) identifies targets for several core environmental policy categories and measures how close countries come to meet them. It is a collaborative project between the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP) and the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, and it is supported by the World Economic Forum.
“The EPI is arrived at in a process that calculates and aggregates 20 indicators that reflect environmental data at the national level of each country. These indicators in turn are combined into nine issue categories, each of which fit in to one of two overarching objectives Environmental Health and Ecosystem vitality,” the release said.
The index measures Environmental and Ecosystem Vitality to compare and identify the best protectors and worst offenders of the environment in the world. While Health Impacts, Air Quality Water and Sanitation make up the criteria to measure environment health, Ecosystem Vitality is measured by quality of Water Resources, Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries, Biodiversity and Habitat, Climate and Energy.
“Of particular significance is that Sri Lanka has defied global trends in air pollution and has shown no deterioration of the ambient air quality. Despite the steady and sharp increase in the vehicular population which has seen a 33 per cent increase over the past four years Sri Lanka has prevented any slide in the quality of air,” it said.
It was stated that Vehicle Transportation is a principal source of air pollution in the urban space of both developing and developed countries. However good emission monitoring mechanisms couples with clean vehicle and fuel technologies can significantly reduce air pollution from vehicles. Road vehicles produce carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides that threaten the atmosphere and are recognized as contributing to global warming.