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. A study co-authored by former CGD senior fellow David Wheeler predicts that a two-meter sea level rise would flood 90 million people out of their homes, many of them in the river deltas of Bangladesh, Egypt, and Vietnam.
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 and Hungary remain at the top of environment standings. Their gasoline taxes are the highest in the CDI countries, and their greenhouse gas emissions are among the lowest. Unlike many Western European countries that have been pursuing environment-conscious technologies for some time, the Visegrád countries score well on emissions in part because of significant recent improvements in the post-communist era. Finland and Sweden also have low emissions because they do not produce fossil fuels. Although Norway similarly has low greenhouse gas emissions rate per capita, it produces the largest amount of fossil fuel per person, followed by Australia, Canada, and the United States. Australia also ranks poorly as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita, while 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. That gap, along with high greenhouse gas emissions and low gas taxes, puts Canada at the bottom.
For more on environment, explore the climate change topic, related publications, and experts.