Environment

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A healthy environment is sometimes dismissed as a luxury for the rich, but it is a necessity for all. Poor nations have weaker infrastructures and fewer social services than rich countries, making the results of climate change all the more damaging. While rich countries are the primary cause of anthropogenic climate change, the costs are largely borne by poor people. Many global fish stocks are overexploited and demand for fish remains high in rich countries. Much of the world’s poor depend on healthy ecosystems and biodiversity. Although tropical timber imports have been decreasing in recent years, rich countries need to step up their efforts in biodiversity protection and conservation. The environment component examines how rich countries are tackling their disproportionate exploitation of the global commons. Are they reining in greenhouse gas emissions and fossil-fuel production? Do they subsidize fleets that deplete fisheries off the coasts of Senegal and India? Do they control imports of illegally cut tropical timber?

 

Slovakia remains at the top of environment standings. Its gasoline taxes are among the highest in the CDI countries, and its greenhouse gas emissions are among the lowest. Sweden takes the second place this year partly because it has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike many Western European countries that have been pursuing green technologies for some time, the Visegrád countries score well on emissions in part because of significant recent improvements in the post-communist era. Although Norway has low greenhouse gas emissions per capita, it produces the largest amount of fossil fuel per person, followed by Australia, Canada, and the United States. Australia also ranks poorly (second last) as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita, while Japan is the largest importer of tropical timber, which together with its small change in emissions and low gasoline tax puts it only one place ahead of Australia. The United States and Canada are the only CDI countries which are not party to the Kyoto Protocol, the most serious international effort yet to deal with climate change. Consistently poor performance across the indicators, including poor compliance with reporting of biodiversity treaties, puts Canada at the bottom.