‘RP implementing environment laws’

WASHINGTON — The Philippines ranks in the top half of a list of 133 countries meeting key environmental goals, according to a study released here as part of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Philippines scored an environmental performance index (EPI) of 68.4 points out of a possible 100 points and was in 55th place for its efforts at reducing environmental stresses on people’s lives and promoting ecosystem vitality and sound natural resource management, two broad worldwide environmental protection objectives.

The index scores were based on the results of a study by researchers at Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Italy.

Researchers looked at six categories — environmental health, air quality, water resources, productive natural resources, biodiversity and habitat and sustainable energy — in examining how close countries were to meeting environmental protection goals.

Sixteen indicators — among them child mortality, air pollution, drinking water, adequate sanitation, wilderness protection and overfishing — were used in determining each country’s performance.

New Zealand topped the list with a score of 88 points followed by Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

All the countries with high EPI scores have committed significant resources to environmental protection, resulting in strong performances across a broad range of policy categories in environmental health and ecosystem vitality, the study said.

The United States was ranked 28th with 78.5 points.

Among member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Philippines was topped only by Malaysia, which ranked ninth with a score of 83.3 points.

Thailand (with 66.8 points) came in 61st followed by Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia which ranked 110th with a score of 49.7 points.

The five lowest-ranked countries were Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger, all underdeveloped nations with little capacity to invest in environmental infrastructure such as drinking water and sanitation systems or aggressive pollution control.

The researchers said dozens of countries could not be included in the study because data were not available for one or more of the 16 EPI indicators used to gauge compliance including basic air pollutant emissions, human exposure to toxic chemicals and heavy metal and hazardous waste management disposals.

The Philippines received its highest marks for low child mortality (94.4 percent) and agricultural subsidies (95.7 percent) and its lowest marks for wilderness protection (23.9 percent) and overfishing (16.7 percent).

The EPI is a pilot project started only this year and the plan is to update the list annually.

Last year, the same group of researchers issued an environmental sustainability index (ESI) gauging the ability of nations to protect the environment over the next several decades. In this list, the Philippines ranked number 125 out of 146 countries.