Yale Environmental Ranking: Japan At 20th Place Among 163 Countries

Very interesting set of data from Yale: Their 2010 ranking of countries shows that European countries and Japan score high on a number of policy issues. Iceland tops the list, while the US ranks 61st. According to the New York Times:

"Some countries that score extraordinarily well in one area may not perform well over all because of unusually lackluster performances in another. The United States scores well in forestry and the provision of safe drinking water, but its ranking is low because of poor scores in areas like heat-trapping emissions and urban air pollutants like sulfur dioxide."

Japan scores well on environmental health and better than the US on a number of issues mentioned by New York Times, like water (including water quality) and forestry, but 45th on issues like air pollution, and just 76th on biodiversity & habitat. Japan also scores very high on pesticide regulation which may come as a surprise to some, but confirms what I have learnt regarding food safety in this country. In total, Japan ranks 20th among the 163 countries on the Environmental Performance Index. There is a lot of data to peruse and the rank charts (pdf) are a good place to start if you want to know more.

Yale EPI Press Release

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