Another featured article in BusinessWorld issued on February 20, 2018 and the Environmental Performance Index report (Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law and PolicyUniversity) refers to “How did the Philippines fare in dealing with environmental issues?”.

The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 180 countries’ performance on environmental issues on the basis of environmental health (which measures the protection of human health from environmental harm using 6 indicators) and ecosystem vitality (which measures ecosystem protection and resource management using 18 indicators). The EPI provides a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance, gives insights on best practices, and provides guidance for countries that aspire to be leaders in sustainability.
In 2018 EPI, the Philippines ranks 82nd out of 180 economies with an EPI score of 57.65. It scored 55.64 on environmetal health and 58.99 on ecosystem vitality. Compared to other ASEAN, it ranked higher than Thailand (121st), Timor-Leste (125th), Vietnam (132nd), Indonesia (133rd), Myanmar (138th), Cambodia (150th), and Laos (153rd). But below Singapore (49th), Brunei (53rd) and Malaysia (75th).

Countries in Europe and Scandinavian are among the top ten with high EPI scores. Switzerland (1st) topped the list followed by France (2nd), Denmark (3rd), Malta (4th), Sweden (5th), United Kingdom (6th), Luxembourg (7th), Austria (8th), Ireland (9th) and Finland (10th).

It should be noted that the 24 indicators in EPI are included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators that governments are being monitored and measured.

2018 ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE INDEX FRAMEWORK 

The 2018 EPI Framework organizes 24 indicators into ten issue categories and two policy objectives.