New Delhi: The Union Environment Ministry on Wednesday rebutted the Environmental Performance Index 2022(EPI), which ranked India at the bottom of a list of 180 countries, saying some of the indicators it used are “extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods”.
Ranked lowest among 180 nations in the EPI published recently by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University, the index used 40 performance indicators across 11 categories to judge countries on climate change performance, environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
“The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022 released recently has many indicators based on unfounded assumptions. Some of these indicators used for assessing performance are extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods,” the Ministry said in a statement.
“A new indicator in the climate policy objective is 'projected GHG emissions levels in 2050'. This is computed based on the average rate of change in emission of the last 10 years instead of modelling that takes into account a longer time period, extent of renewable energy capacity and use, additional carbon sinks, energy efficiency etc. of respective countries,” it added.
The Ministry pointed out that the indicators on water quality, water use efficiency, and waste generation per capita which are closely linked to sustainable consumption and production are not included in the index. It also said that indicators like agro biodiversity, soil health, food loss and waste are not included even though they are important for developing countries with large agrarian populations.
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On greenhouse emissions,a major area of global concern and topping the agenda at the global forums such as at the UN summit in Glasgow, the Ministry said that no indicator in the report talks about renewable energy, energy efficiency and process optimization.
"India being an agrarian country has taken major steps towards the improvement of its agriculture sector and its practices such as Agro biodiversity, water use efficiency and soil health. With only two indicators under the Agriculture category the efforts of India towards the improvement of its agriculture sector and its practices are not reflected" it said.
It is pertinent to note here that India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti on Tuesday in a strong cross-regional joint statement on behalf of 10 nations, which included China as well asserted that developing countries need to be given an additional time frame beyond 2050 to reach net-zero emissions due to their goals of poverty eradication and development.
