{"id":7408,"date":"2025-04-24T13:49:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T13:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/?p=7408"},"modified":"2026-09-05T16:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T16:15:38","slug":"europes-environmental-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/europes-environmental-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe&#8217;s Environmental Performance in Comparison (EPI Ranking)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The American universities Yale and Columbia jointly publish the \u201cEnvironmental Performance Index\u201d (EPI) annually, evaluating the sustainability progress of 180 nations. The index divides the world into eight zones:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asia-Pacific<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extended Middle East<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eastern Europe<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Latin America and the Caribbean<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Former Soviet Union<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Southern Asia<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sub-Saharan Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Global West\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The aim of the EPI is to track the progress of individual states towards achieving the UN climate goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to the university&#8217;s classification, any graphic covering all of Europe must necessarily include several of these regions. In addition to Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union, this also includes states classified under the term \u201cthe Global West.\u201d \u201cThe Global West\u201d encompasses Western and Northern Europe, the USA and Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Notably, the USA ranks last within this group at 22nd place, a position it is projected to maintain under the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Criteria for the EPI<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The EPI 2024 assessment was based on 58 factors across eleven categories, grouped into three segments: climate change (weighted at 30%), environment and health (25%), and ecosystem vitality (45%). The individual categories are also weighted differently. The percentages are shown in the graphic below next to each component. Activities and progress are scored to establish a final rating on a scale of 0 to 100.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listing the individual criteria would be too extensive, but the graphic from Yale University illustrates them:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-24-at-17.03.43.png\" alt=\"The Criteria for the EPI \" width=\"1422\" height=\"1072\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-24-at-17.03.43.png 1422w, https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-24-at-17.03.43-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-24-at-17.03.43-1024x772.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-24-at-17.03.43-768x579.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1422px) 100vw, 1422px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/epi.yale.edu\/downloads\/2024-epi-report-20250106.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EPI Cover 2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commitment versus Indifference<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though this is a value-based ranking, we cannot speak of winners and losers here. The ongoing climate crisis knows no winners. However, the rating shows which states are more committed and which consider the environment a secondary issue. Countries within the regions covering Europe hold 30 of the top 35 places worldwide. Australia, Japan, and New Zealand are also included in this top group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Estonia stands out, ranking first worldwide from the \u201cformer Soviet Union\u201d group with 75.7 points. Luxembourg ranked second worldwide and first within the \u201cGlobal West\u201d group, scoring 75.1 points. Germany secured third place worldwide (second within the \u201cGlobal West\u201d) with 74.5 points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the European nations covered, Azerbaijan ranks lowest with 40.5 points, placing it at rank 121 worldwide. Globally, Vietnam ranked last (180th) in 2024 with 24.6 points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All data listed here are taken from the \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/epi.yale.edu\/downloads\/2024-epi-report-20250106.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EPI Cover 2024<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Strengths and Weaknesses of Germany<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Germany\u2019s good performance is gratifying, it&#8217;s also interesting to examine its specific strengths and weaknesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Germany scored well due to its extensive nature reserves. The often-criticized waste recycling system in Germany also had a significant positive impact, as did the expansion of renewable energies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the authors of the study consider the attempts to counteract overfishing as \u201cmeager.\u201d In addition, Germany still produces too much waste per capita and cannot yet keep up with other European countries in terms of air quality.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Implications for the Future<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One sentence summarizes the future perspective: Environmental protection has only just begun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-trending"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7408"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10795,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions\/10795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.datapulse.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}