The 2026 Environmental Performance Index came out recently, in which, in a list of 177 countries, there is an estimated ranking that shows how good the performance of an environment is on a grand scale of things.
The environment and its natural resources are a sacred home to all of us. It is important as a society to note the way our world is being treated and be mindful of the consequences and actions that can cause a lot of harm to the world.
So, when the performance index came out, everyone was more than appalled to find out that India had ranked 176th out of the total 177 countries in the world, with Laos ranking just below at 177th.
This has caused many questions and uproar regarding our climate and resources, a pushback against the results, and has caused a spur of discussion regarding the true nature of how we use our natural elements in our country.
We shall look into it in more detail below.
The Environmental Performance Index
The Environmental Performance Index, also known as EPI, is an assessment that is taken that tests sustainability worldwide. It ranks 177 countries across the globe on the basis of 47 indicators across 12 issue categories that span the 3 main policy objectives, which are Environmental Health, Ecosystem Vitality and Climate Change.
This is done to observe at a national scale just how well a country performs in accordance with its environmental policies. The EPI also offers a scorecard that acts as a practical guide to leaders and laggards on environmental performance and how to move towards a sustainable future.
It is a very useful assessment method that provides ways to properly understand the problems, setbacks and ways to improve environmental sustainability, while also giving a distinct comparison against other countries that ensures that everyone reaches towards a more sustainable, safe and healthy future.
Now, why did India rank so low in the index for the 2026 assessment?
India’s Downfall?
It has been noted that India has been among the worst-performing countries according to the EPI since 2022. In 2024, India had ranked 176th as well, but the rank was rejected once it came out. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has claimed that several of the indicators used for testing, along with the calculations, were all based on unfounded assumptions and unscientific methods.
Now, in the year 2026, the ranking has still not improved, as India still sits at the 176th rank.
The concerns of air quality, urban environmental management and biodiversity conservation still need much-needed attention before they become a much more pressing matter for the future.
Even India’s Marine Protected Areas’ effectiveness has also been extremely low for the time period, which has brought a considerable amount of warning signals.
However, that does not mean India has failed in environmental protection altogether. Recent studies have found that there has actually been a slow rise in improvement over 10 years.
What does this mean?
10 Years of Improvement
It has been stated that despite the low ranking received in the 2026 assessment, India’s EPI change over 10 years has remained at a positive 7.47. Now this is much higher than many other countries, including Romania, which had a decline of 0.91, and the Dominican Republic, whose score fell to 3.04.
When the EPI’s current methodology is applied to the historical data of India, it shows that India’s environmental performance has greatly improved over time. It was found that while the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have increased, many other pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides have been slowing down over the years.
There are also many other considerations to consider when it comes to how much each edition of the index changes between the years. The 2022 index, for example, had around 40 performance indicators, while the 2024 one used 58.
Thus, it can make comparisons across many years challenging and not an optimal source of proper fact or true reasoning.
What does this mean then?
Regardless of whether India has improved or not, there are vastly different ways of going about India’s environmental sustainability as a whole.
Some say that the rating is very much a reality check, or even a warning signal.
Many green activists and ecological economists around the nation have become more vocal ever since the rating came out, stating that India's absolutely terrible ranking in the EPI is a much-needed wake-up call that no one can turn a blind eye to anymore.
So, even if there has been a considerable amount of improvement in India’s environmental health, concerns like air pollution, biodiversity loss and fossil fuel dependence are still pressing matters today.
Climate activist and founding director of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, Harjeet Singh, has also advised that in order to reverse the ordeal, India must take a ‘grow now, clean up later’ mindset in order to actually drive towards the goal of a truly ecologically sustainable development.
It’s all a mixed bag of perceptions from each corner, but what is truly important here in the end?
Final Thoughts
It is still a very grey area on whether the index should be taken as pure fact, or whether calculations have probably not been as accurate when it comes to making a case for whether a country has good environmental sustainability. The index could be wrong, and it can make mistakes.
Even then, as a country, one must always strive to have better ecological stability for the future and not settle for the bare minimum, as many have stated that India still has concerns regarding many sectors of the environment and its culture.
It can be positive that there hasn’t been any increase in pollutant gases over the last 10 years, but we can always strive to be a better and healthier country.
References
- https://thewire.in
- https://www.downtoearth.org.in
- https://www.nationalheraldindia.com
- https://indianexpress.com
- https://www.drishtiias.com
- https://epi.yale.edu
- https://en.wikipedia.org