HC Deb 27 October 2003 vol 412 cc25-7WS
Mr. Wiggin

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where the UK ranks in the Environmental Sustainability Index; and if she will list the rankings of other EU countries. [131062]

Mr. Morley

The UK ranks 91st in the 2002 Environmental Sustainability Index. The full list of rankings is shown in the following table. However, the UK and other countries believe this index is profoundly flawed, and therefore potentially misleading, for the following reasons. It is an aggregated indicator which aims to weight together many components into a single overall measure of 'environmental sustainability', an approach which as yet is not scientifically robust. The choice of components, and the way in which they are weighted together, is largely subjective. A different choice of components or weights would give different results, amply illustrated by the fact that the previous edition of this index, based on a different selection of components, placed the UK 16th. Furthermore, there are still many areas where data are not sufficiently comparable between countries, or are simply not available. The values of many of the variables used to compile this index are imputed. It should also be noted that the variables used in this index tend to measure circumstances at a single point in time rather than trends or changes, therefore to the extent the index measures anything at all, it measures the environmental situation which a country faces rather than its progress or performance in improving environmental sustainability.

2002 ESI rankings by country
Rank Country ESI
1 Finland 73.9
2 Norway 73.0
3 Sweden 72.6
4 Canada 70.6
5 Switzerland 66.5
6 Uruguay 66.0
7 Austria 64.2
8 Iceland 63.9
9 Costa Rica 63.2
10 Latvia 63.0
11 Hungary 62.7
12 Croatia 62.5
13 Botswana 61.8
14 Slovakia 61.6
15 Argentina 61.5
16 Australia 60.3
17 Panama 60.0
18 Estonia 60.0
19 New Zealand 59.9
20 Brazil 59.6
21 Bolivia 59.4
22 Colombia 59.1
23 Slovenia 58.8
24 Albania 57.9
25 Paraguay 57.8
26 Namibia 57.4
27 Lithuania 57.2

2002 ESI rankings by country
Rank Country ESI
28 Portugal 57.1
29 Peru 56.5
30 Bhutan 56.3
31 Denmark 56.2
32 Laos 56.2
33 France 55.5
34 Netherlands 55.4
35 Chile 55.1
36 Gabon 54.9
37 Ireland 54.8
38 Armenia 54.8
39 Moldova 54.5
40 Congo 54.3
41 Ecuador 54.3
42 Mongolia 54.2
43 Central African Republic 54.1
44 Spain 54.1
45 United States 53.2
46 Zimbabwe 53.2
47 Honduras 53.1
48 Venezuela 53.0
49 Byelarus 52.8
50 Germany 52.5
51 Papua New Guinea 51.8
52 Nicaragua 51.8
53 Jordan 51.7
54 Thailand 51.6
55 Sri Lanka 51.3
56 Kyrgyzstan 51.3
57 Bosnia and Herzegovina 51.3
58 Cuba 51.2
59 Mozambique 51.1
60 Greece 50.9
61 Tunisia 50.8
62 Turkey 50.8
63 Israel 50.4
64 Czech Republic 50.2
65 Ghana 50.2
66 Romania 50.0
67 Guatemala 49.6
68 Malaysia 49.5
69 Zambia 49.5
70 Algeria 49.4
71 Bulgaria 49.3
72 Russia 49.1
73 Morocco 49.1
74 Egypt 48.8
75 El Salvador 48.7
76 Uganda 48.7
77 South Africa 48.7
78 Japan 48.6
79 Dominican Republic 48.1
80 Tanzania 48.1
81 Senegal 47.6
82 Malawi 47.3
83 Macedonia 47.2
84 Italy 47.2
85 Mali 47.1
86 Bangladesh 46.9
87 Poland 46.7
88 Kazakhstan 46.5
89 Kenya 46.3
90 Myanmar (Burma) 46.2
91 United Kingdom 46.1
92 Mexico 45.9
93 Cameroon 45.9
94 Vietnam 45.7
95 Benin 45.7
96 Chad 45.7
97 Cambodia 45.6
98 Guinea 45.3
99 Nepal 45.2
100 Indonesia 45.1
101 Burkina Faso 45.0

2002 ESI rankings by country
Rank Country ESI
102 Sudan 44.7
103 Gambia 44.7
104 Iran 44.5
105 Togo 44.3
106 Lebanon 43.8
107 Syria 43.6
108 Ivory Coast 43.4
109 Zaire 43.3
110 Tajikstan 42.4
111 Angola 42.4
112 Pakistan 42.1
113 Ethiopia 41.8
114 Azerbaijan 41.8
115 Burundi 41.6
116 India 41.6
117 Philippines 41.6
118 Uzbekistan 41.3
119 Rwanda 40.6
120 Oman 40.2
121 Trinidad and Tobago 40.1
122 Jamaica 40.1
123 Niger 39.4
124 Libya 39.3
125 Belgium 39.1
126 Mauritania 38.9
127 Guinea-Bissau 38.8
128 Madagascar 38.8
129 China 38.5
130 Liberia 37.7
131 Turkmenistan 37.3
132 Somalia 37.1
133 Nigeria 36.7
134 Sierra Leone 36.5
135 South Korea 35.9
136 Ukraine 35.0
137 Haiti 34.8
138 Saudi Arabia 34.2
139 Iraq 33.2
140 North Korea 32.3
141 United Arab Emirates 25.7
142 Kuwait 23.9

Source:

Global Leaders of Tomorrow Task Force of the World Economic Forum in association with Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University