Mapped: The Greenest Countries in the World

From widening wealth disparity to the environmental ramifications of economic development—the growing focus on global sustainability is a clear sign of the times.

Research reveals that when a sustainable ethos is applied to policy and business, it typically bodes well for economies and people alike. By providing benchmarks for those decisions, indexes like Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI) can be critical to measuring national sustainability efforts.

The above map interprets the EPI ranking of 180 economies across 32 environmental health indicators by narrowing in on the top 40 greenest countries.

Who’s the Greenest of them All?

Despite the decades-long trend of globalization, national environmental policies have proved to be widely divergent. The EPI report confirms that those policies—and their positive results—are highly correlated with national wealth.

This is evidenced in the global EPI distributions, seen below:

OVERALL RANK	COUNTRY	SCORE	REGIONAL RANK
1	Denmark	82.5	1
2	Luxembourg	82.3	2
3	Switzerland	81.5	3
4	United Kingdom	81.3	4
5	France	80	5
6	Austria	79.6	6
7	Finland	78.9	7
8	Sweden	78.7	8
9	Norway	77.7	9
10	Germany	77.2	10
11	Netherlands	75.3	11
12	Japan	75.1	1
13	Australia	74.9	12
14	Spain	74.3	13
15	Belgium	73.3	14
16	Ireland	72.8	15
17	Iceland	72.3	16
18	Slovenia	72	1
19	New Zealand	71.3	17
20	Canada	71	18
21	Czech Republic	71	2
22	Italy	71	18
23	Malta	70.7	20
24	United States of America	69.3	21
25	Greece	69.1	3
26	Slovakia	68.3	4
27	Portugal	67	22
28	South Korea	66.5	2
29	Israel	65.8	1
30	Estonia	65.3	5
31	Cyprus	64.8	6
32	Romania	64.7	7
33	Hungary	63.7	8
34	Croatia	63.1	9
35	Lithuania	62.9	10
36	Latvia	61.6	11
37	Poland	60.9	12
38	Seychelles	58.2	1
39	Singapore	58.1	3
40	Taiwan	57.2	4
41	Bulgaria	57	13
42	United Arab Emirates	55.6	2
43	North Macedonia	55.4	14
44	Chile	55.3	1
45	Serbia	55.2	15
46	Brunei Darussalam	54.8	5
47	Kuwait	53.6	3
48	Jordan	53.4	4
49	Belarus	53	1
50	Colombia	52.9	2
51	Mexico	52.6	3
52	Costa Rica	52.5	4
53	Armenia	52.3	2
54	Argentina	52.2	5
55	Brazil	51.2	6
56	Bahrain	51	5
57	Ecuador	51	7
58	Russia	50.5	3
59	Venezuela	50.3	8
60	Ukraine	49.5	4
61	Uruguay	49.1	9
62	Albania	49	16
63	Antigua and Barbuda	48.5	10
64	Cuba	48.4	11
65	St. Vincent and Grenadines	48.4	11
66	Jamaica	48.2	13
67	Iran	48	6
68	Malaysia	47.9	6
69	Trinidad and Tobago	47.5	14
70	Panama	47.3	15
71	Tunisia	46.7	7
72	Azerbaijan	46.5	5
73	Paraguay	46.4	16
74	Dominican Republic	46.3	17
75	Montenegro	46.3	17
76	Gabon	45.8	2
77	Barbados	45.6	18
78	Bosnia and Herzegovina	45.4	18
79	Lebanon	45.4	8
80	Thailand	45.4	7
81	Suriname	45.2	19
82	Mauritius	45.1	3
83	Tonga	45.1	8
84	Algeria	44.8	9
85	Kazakhstan	44.7	6
86	Dominica	44.6	20
87	Moldova	44.4	7
88	Bolivia	44.3	21
89	Uzbekistan	44.3	8
90	Peru	44	22
91	Saudi Arabia	44	10
92	Turkmenistan	43.9	9
93	Bahamas	43.5	23
94	Egypt	43.3	11
95	El Salvador	43.1	24
96	Grenada	43.1	24
97	Saint Lucia	43.1	24
98	South Africa	43.1	4
99	Turkey	42.6	19
100	Morocco	42.3	12
101	Belize	41.9	27
102	Georgia	41.3	10
103	Botswana	40.4	5
104	Namibia	40.2	6
105	Kyrgyzstan	39.8	11
106	Iraq	39.5	13
107	Bhutan	39.3	1
108	Nicaragua	39.2	28
109	Sri Lanka	39	2
110	Oman	38.5	14
111	Philippines	38.4	9
112	Burkina Faso	38.3	7
113	Malawi	38.3	7
114	Tajikistan	38.2	12
115	Equatorial Guinea	38.1	9
116	Honduras	37.8	29
117	Indonesia	37.8	10
118	Kiribati	37.7	11
119	São Tomé and Príncipe	37.6	10
120	China	37.3	12
121	Samoa	37.3	12
122	Qatar	37.1	15
123	Zimbabwe	37	11
124	Central African Republic	36.9	12
125	Dem. Rep. Congo	36.4	13
126	Guyana	35.9	30
127	Maldives	35.6	3
128	Uganda	35.6	14
129	Timor-Leste	35.3	14
130	Laos	34.8	15
131	Sudan	34.8	16
132	Kenya	34.7	15
133	Zambia	34.7	15
134	Ethiopia	34.4	17
135	Fiji	34.4	16
136	Mozambique	33.9	18
137	Eswatini	33.8	19
138	Rwanda	33.8	19
139	Cambodia	33.6	17
140	Cameroon	33.6	21
141	Viet Nam	33.4	18
142	Pakistan	33.1	4
143	Micronesia	33	19
144	Cabo Verde	32.8	22
145	Nepal	32.7	5
146	Papua New Guinea	32.4	20
147	Mongolia	32.2	21
148	Comoros	32.1	23
149	Guatemala	31.8	31
150	Tanzania	31.1	24
151	Nigeria	31	25
152	Marshall Islands	30.8	22
153	Niger	30.8	26
154	Republic of Congo	30.8	26
155	Senegal	30.7	28
156	Eritrea	30.4	29
157	Benin	30	30
158	Angola	29.7	31
159	Togo	29.5	32
160	Mali	29.4	33
161	Guinea-Bissau	29.1	34
162	Bangladesh	29	6
163	Vanuatu	28.9	23
164	Djibouti	28.1	35
165	Lesotho	28	36
166	Gambia	27.9	37
167	Mauritania	27.7	38
168	Ghana	27.6	39
169	India	27.6	7
170	Burundi	27	40
171	Haiti	27	32
172	Chad	26.7	41
173	Solomon Islands	26.7	24
174	Madagascar	26.5	42
175	Guinea	26.4	43
176	Côte d’Ivoire	25.8	44
177	Sierra Leone	25.7	45
178	Afghanistan	25.5	8
179	Myanmar	25.1	25
180	Liberia	22.6	46

Regional grouping in the report include: Global West, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Former Soviet States, Greater Middle East, Latin America & Caribbean, Southern Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa

Scandinavian countries, which tend to have a high GDP per capita, show strong and consistent results across EPI parameters. Denmark for instance—which ranks first overall—leads the world in slowing its growth in CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, neighbor Sweden leads in landfill and recycling treatment, while wastewater treatment is led by a handful of countries within and beyond Scandinavia including Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Sweden.

In North America, Canada claims top spot in the biodiversity and habitat category, while the U.S. ranks sixth in agricultural diversity globally. In Asia, Singapore leads the world in fishery health and sustainability.

Ultimately, it appears the world’s greenest countries tend to focus on all areas of sustainability, while laggard countries show more uneven performance across categories.

What Does “Green” Mean?

Each high-level performance indicator with the EPI, like “environmental health”, is broken into subsections. Nations are scored on each subsector on a scale up to 100. As a result, multiple countries can rank first in any given category.

By evaluating national sustainability on a scale that is unrelated to other nations, we get a clearer idea of comparative national progress, beyond a basic ranking.

For instance, 30 countries tie for first in marine protection, all with scores of 100. This shows that many economies are prioritizing this area of sustainability.

The EPI categories and subsectors are shown in the diagram below:

Each section is weighted differently, and is reflected as a percentage within the index. For example, Ecosystem Vitality accounts for 60% of the EPI, Climate Change makes up 24% of a country’s score, and CO2 emission reduction is weighted at 13.2%.

The Cost of Being Green

Infrastructure costs are one reason why wealthier nations tend to fare better across sustainability measures. Everything from air pollution reduction and water treatment, to hazardous waste control and mitigation of public health crises are especially expensive—but have a huge potential impact on citizens.

This trend can be seen the scatterplot, which demonstrates the distribution of economies evaluated by the EPI:

For a more detailed look, the table below highlights the GDP per capita of each of the top 40 greenest countries, based on data from the World Bank and Statista:

COUNTRY	EPI SCORE	GDP Per Capita	RANK
Denmark	82.5	60,170	1
Luxembourg	82.3	114,705	2
Switzerland	81.5	81,994	3
United Kingdom	81.3	42,330	4
France	80	40,494	5
Austria	79.6	50,138	6
Finland	78.9	48,783	7
Sweden	78.7	51,615	8
Norway	77.7	75,420	9
Germany	77.2	46,445	10
Netherlands	75.3	52,331	11
Japan	75.1	40,247	12
Australia	74.9	55,060	13
Spain	74.3	29,600	14
Belgium	73.3	46,421	15
Ireland	72.8	78,661	16
Iceland	72.3	66,945	17
Slovenia	72	25,946	18
New Zealand	71.3	42,084	19
Canada	71	46,195	20
Czech Republic	71	23,495	21
Italy	71	33,228	22
Malta	70.7	29,821	23
United States of America	69.3	65,298	24
Greece	69.1	19,583	25
Slovakia	68.3	19,266	26
Portugal	67	23,252	27
South Korea	66.5	31,846	28
Israel	65.8	43,592	29
Estonia	65.3	23,723	30
Cyprus	64.8	27,858	31
Romania	64.7	12,920	32
Hungary	63.7	16,732	33
Croatia	63.1	14,936	34
Lithuania	62.9	19,602	35
Latvia	61.6	17,829	36
Poland	60.9	15,693	37
Seychelles	58.2	17,448	38
Singapore	58.1	65,233	39
Taiwan	57.2	25,873	40

Despite the strong correlation between GDP per capita and EPI score, developing countries do not have to abandon sustainability efforts. China for instance leads the world in the adoption of electric vehicle technology.

Post-Pandemic Outlook

Although some rankings can seem prosaic, indexes like the EPI provide a helpful benchmark for economies to compare efforts. It also allows governments to iterate and build upon environmental strategies and investments by highlighting what is and isn’t working.

CO2 emissions, for instance, are a major driver of climate change. Although the global economic stall has led to a temporary dip of CO2 emissions in early 2020 (a slower growth rate than the 11% expected rise), global emissions still continue.

However, the EPI shows that investments have impact. High-level sustainability efforts—political commitment, media coverage, regulations—can deliver results, even at the grassroots level.

This content was originally published here.