The countries of SE Europe are faring pretty well in the area of preserving the natural environment, worse in the area of efficient energy sources and environmental policies.
During the World Economic Forum in Davos the most complex index to date – EPI – Environmental Performance Index 2010 was presented.
The research carried out by Yale Centre for Environmental Law & Policy, measures the influence of the environment on people as well as the vitality of the environment, where ecosystem health and managing natural resources are measured. The research included 163 countries. The 25 measured markers included assessment of the environment, waters, air quality for people, air quality for the environment, water resources, biotic diversity, forestry, fishery, farming and managing climate change.
The top ten countries with the healthiest ecosystems considering all the abovementioned factors are:
1. Iceland
2. Switzerland
3. Costa Rica
4. Sweden
5. Norway
6. Mauritius
7. France
8. Australia
9. Cuba
10. Colombia
The countries from a wider region of SEE Europe have placed:
13. Slovakia
18. Italy
22. Czech Republic
23. Albania
29. Serbia
33. Hungary
35. Croatia
45. Romania
55. Slovenia
65. Bulgaria
73. Macedonia
98. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Most SE European countries landed in the group 7 where countries place highly concerning the state of the natural environment and somewhat worse in the area of farming and emissions per capita.
The highest ranked countries on the list are there due to their environmental legislature, use of renewable sources, policies to carbon neutrality, fight on use of fossil fuels, sustainable building, protecting biotic diversity in natural reserves, water quality and forest preservation.
The drop of Slovenia from 15. in 2008 to 55. in 2010 is surprising. The placement of Slovenia is lower due to worse results in the area of protecting the sea, carbon oxide emissions, ozone in the ecosystem, farming subsidies and sustainable politics, greenhouse gasses emissions per capita and CO2 emissions from creating electricity (CO2/kWh). The idea of building the economically, socially and environmentally controversial fossil fuel thermal power plant TEŠ 6 and the attitude towards environmental policies will continue to keep Slovenia behind, despite deserving its high ranking in the area of protecting the natural environment.
Let us make sure a part of the solution will also be a sustainable meetings industry, which will help place SE European countries higher on the chart.
Details and results for specific countries available at: www.envirocenter.research.yale.edu
