Costa Rica Blog

Costa Rica Ranks Third Worldwide in Environmental Performance!

Posted by Steve Linder on Mon, Apr, 12, 2010

Costa Rica has ranked highest in the Americas and 3rd in the world with a score of 86.4 in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Second place goes to Switzerland with a score of 89.1 and the honor of first place goes to Iceland with a score of 93.5.
windmills in Costa RicaThe Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals.

 

In Central America, Nicaragua placed 93rd, Panama placed 24th, El Salvador 33rd, Honduras 118th and Guatemala 105th.  The United States places 61st with strong results on some issues, such as provision of safe drinking water and forest sustainability, and weak performance on other issues including greenhouse gas emissions and several aspects of local air pollution.
For more information click here: http://epi.yale.edu/