Top 5 Most Eco Countries
By Pippa Sorley
Filed Under The Big Picture |
Measuring the “eco-ness” of a country immediately begs the question- what exactly is being measured? Is it the country’s cultural and social contributions, or merely the percentage of GNP devoted to renewable and environmental technologies? Do the metrics take into account the losses of warfare or the abundance of natural resources?
Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, in conjunction with Columbia University, recently released its first official Environmental Performance Index. The EPI is a ranking of almost every nation’s commitment to with a range of metrics for everything from greenhouse gas emissions to water purity and conservation practices.
It is not surprising that the wealthy Scandinavian countries dominate the top five, while the poorest African nations fell into the bottom five. You may think all developing nations would be so focused on daily subsistence over global environmental standards, that they wouldn’t score well on the Environmental Performance Index. However, several developing countries proved that money isn’t everything. Columbia, with a per capita GDP of $6886, came in at number 9, well ahead of France and Japan. And Costa Rica, far from being wealthy, scored number 5 due to its commitment to wildlife conservation and environmental practices. The United States embarrassingly came in at number 39, well below large nations like Canada and Russia, and small ones like Latvia, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
Let’s take a look at how the Eco Top 5 are making it happen…
1 SWITZERLAND
Switzerland, long standing as one of the most open, neutral and peace-loving countries in the middle of war-torn Europe, is not only known for its diplomacy, but also for its performance in fighting pollution. This is the result of long-term legislative and institutional policy regarding the environment. Its legislation emphasizes the principles of co-operation, causality (the polluter pays and user pays principles) and prevention. Although it faces several challenges, Switzerland leads the way with its pioneering legislative strategies:
- The country charges for water and waste management services, which promotes personal conservation
- In 2006, Switzerland created the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), devoted to sustainable management of natural resources and safety measures for natural hazards and technological risks
- The Swiss have implemented a number of environmental taxes
2 NORWAY
Norway is home to one of the world’s largest solar power companies (is it really that sunny in Norway?) and like all the eco-conscious Scandinavian countries, it made a pledge years ago to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. In fact, it has speeded up its original goal to become carbon-neutral from the year 2050 to 2030. However, as allowed under the UN environmental accounting policy, Norway plans to become carbon neutral by financing environmental projects abroad. It’s basically the outsourcing of emissions clean-up, because it’s just plain cheaper to do everything in a country with a lower value to their money. The problem with trying to “cancel out” emissions at home by planting trees or cleaning up a polluting factory in a country far away is that it’s much harder to monitor progress of the projects by the purchaser of the carbon credits. But some environmentalists wonder what is Norway’s actual plan for reducing its own emissions? This, of course, will require real sacrifice closer to home, like driving less, flying less and putting restrictions on businesses.
3 SWEDEN
Sweden gets most of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power. Now the country has made an astonishing commitment to phase out fossil fuel use by 2020. Now it’s turning its attention to transport, and petrol and diesel. The Swedish government is planning to wean the country off oil within 15 years and thereby become the world’s first oil-free country with carbon-free alternatives such as ethanol and animal waste.
The country has also developed a ground-breaking new energy technology powered by the force of the sea. The technology, developed by the University of Uppsala, takes the power of waves and turns it directly into electrical energy. It creates no emissions and leaves no harmful waste. While estimates for solar power is 1,000 hours a year and for wind power is 2,200 hours a year, it is estimated that wave power will be available for up to 4,000 hours a year, based on how choppy the seas are that surround Sweden.
4 FINLAND
Finland has implemented a range of environmental policies that have improved the quality of life and are clearly visible throughout the country. According to the Finnish Environment Institute, many polluted lakes and rivers have been cleaned up. Air quality has improved greatly around industrial locations. And, a vast network of protected areas has been built up to safeguard biodiversity. Forests are Finland’s most valuable natural resources, and their overall annual growth rate exceeds the total timber harvest.
Finland has spearheaded the United Nation’s Environmental Programme (UNEP) Task Force for Sustainable Building and Construction. According to Finland’s Minister of the environment, Mr. Jan-Erik Enestam, “Not only buildings, but the whole planning and construction process have an immense economic, social and environmental impact on the globe. As an example, in many countries buildings account for almost half of the total energy consumption and one third of carbon dioxide emissions. This alarming fact also reveals the great potential of increasing energy efficiency in building and construction processes.”
5 COSTA RICA
When one thinks of Costa Rica, idyllic images of surfers, toucans and rainforest canopies come to mind. With an estimated 5% of the entire world’s biodiversity found here, Costa Rica represents one of the most bio-diverse regions on the planet. It is often referred to as a “Living Eden” by naturalists and scientists, with 25% of the country’s land set aside and turned into protective parks and reserves. But, preserving land is not the only environmental initiative for which Costa Rica is well-reputed. Rated number 5 out of 149 countries by Yale’s Environment Center, Costa Rica is a stand out in the field of sustainability. The country - with an average per capita income of only $9669 - has pioneered several sustainable development projects that have served as examples to the rest of the world. Here are some highlights:
- With more than 1,300 kilometers of coastline, volcanic and mountainous terrain, Costa Rica is able to obtain over 80% of its power from hydro-electricity
- Through FUNDECOR, a foundation for management of the Central Volcanic Mountain Range, Costa Rica purchased 200,000 tons of carbon from Norway. This carbon trade became the first international transaction for carbon sequestration
- Costa Rica established a 5% tax on fuels, a carbon tax in essence, which in turn generates revenues to pre-pay environmental services that could later be commercialized; this is one of the first examples of a closed loop carbon sequesteration tax.
What will it take for the US to slip out of 39th place into something a bit greener? Let us know what you think in the Comments section at the top of this post.
Posted on May 1, 2008 |
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27 Responses to “Top 5 Most Eco Countries”
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I came across your blog on Technorati. Nice site layout. I will stop by and read more soon.
Mike Harmon
That’s why I live in what I consider the greatest nation on earth. COSTA RICA.
The others are truly awesome but I don’t do cold weather.
Pura Vida ! ( pure life)
Oasis of the toucans ( dot com).
The USA can green up by subsidizing; solar cell installations in the sunny suburbs, passive solar assisted and geothermal new homes, home veggie gardening, wind/electric installations By using bio-diesel/electric hybrid VWs and the like. By exploiting desert/solar electricity, banning SUVs, banning lawns for gardens and cutting back on all military adventures that are not strictly defensive. By basing car model changes on technical advances only, and by going through a paradigm change in their sense of values that only the oncoming depression can drive and validate.
Great ideas Uncle B - do you or anyone know of state patrol and/or government vehicles in the USA that are bio-diesel or electric hybrid?
That’s awesome uncle B. The government telling us what we can and can not do. Is that not what caused us to rebell from the british empire and become our own nation in the first place. Get a clue, we, the U.S., are what we are because we did not like being told what to do or how to live. You want government to regulate stuff that has to do with the environment, but I can guarantee if they tried to regulate your free speech you would flip. That makes you a hypocrite, or as I like to call you people, liberal, democrat, or hippie. You do not dwell in the real world. You dwell in campus coffee shops, dorm rooms, and berkley. You want, want, want, and want someone else, ie. the government, to make it happen, and then you bitch about taxes.
just a correction;
Norway gets negliable amounts of electricity from solarpowerplants. Pretty much all our energy comes from hydroelectric powerplants.
We also export craploads of pollutants (oil, fertilizer etc), and consume more power per capita than pretty much every other country.
We also import incredible amounts of consumer goods considering the small population.
As a endnote, I wouldn’t put norway anywhere near the top5 eco-friendly countries. That is unless the rest of the world is more fucked up than i thought.
What about Iceland?
This is a really silly post. How can you possibly compare the U.S. or any other large industrious country to small countries that produce basically nothing (every country in the top 5) I am in no means trying to make fun of these countries in fact far from it but in my opinion you can’t compare world superpowers to countries who don’t even have an army because they are too small and insignificant to require one. I think the U.S. should try and reduce its pollution however I am really sick of people in America bitching about its pollution and then driving their polluting cars all around town. If you really want to make a change stop trying to point a finger at the “U.S.” and take personal responsibility no matter what country you are from.
dear erik, i live in canada. the rest of the world is more fucked up than you thought.
dan, you come off as an obnoxious american by devaluing what is not yours. these countries are not insignificant, your country is on its way out of the ’superpower’ list, and as far as talking about armies, if your insecure nation didn’t spent more on its military than virtually every other nation COMBINED does (http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp#InContextUSMilitarySpendingVersusRestoftheWorld = source) than perhaps funds could be dedicated to greening things up rather than on preparing to invade more foreign countries in search of more oil that your nation (and mine) are so ridiculously addicted to.
Responding to Pippa - many, many transit agencies in the United States are in the process of or have completed converted their fleet to hybrid-electric and/or biodiesel. Those that are not converting, are required by the USEPA to use low-sulpher diesel that reduces heavy particulates. It’s a start. Long way to go. BTW- loved your list.
Hi Dan, this post is based on a widely known and reputed report that came out of several years of comparative country research from Yale and Columbia Universities. They used a very exact methodology to measure 150 countries based on population, GDP, per capita income, conservation policies and renewable energy programs. I encourage you to review their transparent methodology here: http://epi.yale.edu/Methodology
Newsweek published a recent article on the internationally acclaimed EPI report here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/97279
We appreciate you taking part in the conversation, even if you don’t like its topic or conclusions…
Hi Erik - I have to agree with Tylor too - the rest of the world is definitely more screwed up than I’d like to admit!
But on a more serious note, and as stated above, Norway was listed in the top 5 according to Yale’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy Report issued a few weeks ago.
As posted by the EPI report, Norway produces a lower percentage of emissions per capita than most other countries, with a scoring of 79.9 out of 100. It has also pledged to dramatically reduce this rate by 2050.
I have cut and pasted an interesting explanation of Yale’s methodology here:
“Globally, the energy sector generates the largest portion of annual GHG emissions, but many countries’ biggest emissions source is not this sector. Many developing nations have very low emissions from the energy sector but have high GHG emissions associated with deforestation and agriculture. For example, Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the United States, due to rapidly occurring, extensive land use changes (World Bank 2007). Numerous developed countries have actually reduced their energy sector emissions by investing heavily in renewable energy technologies that can produce significant quantities of energy with very low overall emissions. Recognizing the heterogeneity of GHG emission sources across countries will be important for developing appropriate climate change mitigation strategies, and this diversity highlights the complex nature of developing future climate policy.”
Hi CJ - thanks much for the info. I know that here in the Republic of Boulder our buses run on clean burning diesel and the University of Colorado transit buses run on biodiesel. I guess I was curious about police/sheriff’s department vehicles. Do you know if the EPA will be mandating requirements for these fleets?
will:
wow. how does making vast generalizations and spouting angry run-of-the-mill, unfounded arguments help the discussion surrounding the need for sustainability? i mean, comparing free speech and polluting? that’s amazing.
hopefully our government can function as a facilitator of progression in cutting unneeded waste and taking accountability for our actions. you are right, the gov should not tell the people what to do, but they can put some regulations, subsidies and tax breaks in the right place to encourage positive change. we are talking about survival in our generation and our children to come.
I live in Costa Rica and how this study was put together is a huge mystery to me. I love it here and never want to leave, but it’s far from being eco friendly. At the moment I’m working on a documentary on how un-eco friendly Costa Rica is. How they lack proper sewage systems so 90% of all sewage ends up back in the drinking water. How miles and miles of jungle and forest are being cut down and burned daily. How animals are going extinct here because they are hunted. How car emissions are not enforced here. Within 4 years there will no longer be a beautiful Costa Rica to come visit. I’m hoping to put a stop to the pollution here, but when studies like this are lying to the public it’s going to be hard. I’m not sure what part of Costa Rica Doug Ward lives in but I guarantee it’s not as eco friendly as he’s stating.
This is bullshit, Iceland is number one and Norway!!!!! They are one of the last two countries that kill whales and they export huge amounts of hydrocarbons. They’re CO2 pushers and that’s just as bad as emitters.
Anyone notice what the top 5 countries have in common? I think there are two important factors myself.
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I am from costa rica and having a lot of preserved areas doesn’t make a country green. There is hardly any punishment to people that pollute, deficit in park rangers (that earn less to none), and CORRUPTION in the goverment that does not enforce the little enviromental laws to protect national parks. Dark pacts with asian countries to let their vessels kill marine life, shark finning the best example, in Coco’s Island which are cruelly killed just to cut off their fins and discard the rest of the body at sea. The shark is taken on board, fins are cut off and just like that, dumped back into sea. So either this list is tooootally wrong, or the rest of the world has no hope.
Philly:
thank you for your response to will! you said just what I was thinking! free speech has Nothing to do with pollution or becoming more eco-friendly! will saying “we are the US because we don’t like to be told what to do or how to live” makes me sick, as if living in the US gives us a free ticket to destroy the planet as we please. I have a name for people like will: close-minded, conservative, selfish, nationalistic, and dense. People like will are the reason the US gets so little respect these days from the rest of the world. But I guess getting along with others probably isn’t in his plans anyway. I believe the US needs to step up and be more eco-friendly, invest in new power and fuel sources, and take action to save the planet we all live on.
I agree with you Andrea, just the fact that Costa Rica has some large national parks does not mean that it’s sustainable. And, it has a long way to go. But, when looking at the country’s GDP and per capita income when compared to the rest of the world’s, it’s still pretty impressive that it ranks number five when it comes to environmental performance. And, it’s amazing that ONE QUARTER of its land has been earmarked for conservation. Imagine if America or Canada did the same? We’d have to find someplace else to exploit for all the natural resources we are dependent on, such as oil, metals, minerals, water, timber, etc…
Opiniones de gente de verdad sobre asuntos de verdad en Costa Rica: http://tiquiciadeverdad.blogspot.com/
Does any one know what rank Japan is?
Yes, Japan’s rank is 21 out of 149 and the leading performer amongst East Asia (Malaysia followed with a ranking of 29, then Taiwan at 40).