P Chidambaram mocks NDA government for rejecting Environment Performance Index 2022
PremiumIndia rejected the Environment Performance Index 2022, which had ranked it lowest out of 180 nations.
Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram has mocked the NDA government for rejecting India’s ranking at the Environment Performance Index (EPI) 2022, which ranked it lowest out of 180 countries.
“NDA Government is well known as the 'No Data Available' Government. Now it is the 'No Dissonance Allowed' Government. That is why it rejected the Environmental Performance Index that placed India at the last place among 180 countries," P Chidambaram wrote on Twitter.
The Union environment ministry, on June 8, said some of the indicators the Environment Performance Index 2022 had used were extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods.
The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network recently released an index that evaluated countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality using 40 performance indicators across 11 categories.
Denmark emerged as the winner in the Environmental Performance Index 2022. The United Kingdom, Finland, Malta and Sweden are the next ones on the list. Luxembourg, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and Iceland also feature among the top 10, respectively.
While India is ranked the lowest, other Asian countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, VietNam and Myanmar are not far behind.
Many measures in the Environmental Performance Index 2022 are based on erroneous assumptions. According to the government, some of the measures used to gauge success are extended and based on assumptions and nonscientific approaches.
'Projected GHG emissions levels in 2050' is a new indicator in the climate policy target. According to India, this is calculated using the average rate of change in emissions over the last 10 years rather than modelling that takes into account a longer time period, the extent of renewable energy capacity and use, additional carbon sinks, energy efficiency, and other factors in the respective countries.
Forests and wetlands of the country are crucial carbon sinks but have not been factored in while computing the projected GHG emissions trajectory up to 2050 given by EPI 2022. Historical data on the lowest emission trajectory has been ignored in the computation, it said while rejecting the analysis.
The ministry said the weight of the indicators in which India performed well has been reduced and the reasons for such change have not been explained in the report.
For example, for black carbon growth rate indicator, India's score has improved to 100 in 2022 from 32 in 2020, whereas the overall weight of the indicator is reduced to 0.0038 in 2022 from 0.018 in 2020, it said.
"No indicator talks about renewable energy, energy efficiency and process optimisation. The selection of indicators is biased and incomplete...Per capita GHG emissions contribute only a miniscule 2.6 per cent weight overall in the index," the ministry said.
The principle of equity is given very low weightage in the form of indicators like GHG emission per capita and GHG Emission intensity trend. The CBDR-RC principle is also barely reflected in the composition of the index, the ministry said.
Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR RC) acknowledges the different capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change.
The indicators on water quality, water use efficiency, waste generation per capita which are closely linked to sustainable consumption and production are not included in the Index, the ministry said.
The index emphasises on the extent of protected areas rather than the quality of protection that they afford. Management, effectiveness and evaluation of protected areas and eco-sensitive regions is not factored into the computation of biodiversity indices, it said.
The index computes the extent of ecosystems but not their condition or productivity. It did not include indicators like agro biodiversity, soil health, food loss and waste even though they are important for developing countries with large agrarian populations.
(With PTI inputs)