Nation Ranked 54th in Environmental Performance
Estonia has placed 54th out of 132 nations in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which rates the strength of legislation related to protecting natural resources and controlling pollution.
The biennially-published ranking, compiled by researchers from Yale University and Columbia University, is led by Switzerland, followed by Latvia, Norway and Luxembourg. Estonia's eastern neighbor, Russia, placed 104th. Iraq, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan occupy the bottom three positions on the list.
In the 2010 EPI rankings, Estonia landed on the 57th position, with a total of 163 countries assessed.
Countries are ranked based on 22 performance indicators in 10 policy categories, including air and water pollution, biodiversity, agriculture and climate change.
This year, the researchers also introduced a Pilot Trend Environment Performance Index (Trend EPI), which aims to show how countries improved their environmental policies between 2000 and 2010.
The Trend EPI places Estonia in the 128th position, putting the nation in the bottom five. Russia showed the least improvement in environmental performance over the decade, followed by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Estonia's southern neighbor Latvia, however, showed a top-notch performance in the Trend EPI, landing in first place. The second and third positions were taken by Azerbaijan and Romania, respectively.
Ingrid Teesalu