Jordan retains rank on Environmental Performance Index in 60th place

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 60th among 178 countries on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2014, with an overall score of 55.68 per cent.

The Kingdom did not show any advancement or regression in its environmental performance compared to the year 2012, when it held the same ranking and score, according to the EPI website.

The EPI, which is issued every other year, ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems, according to its website.

An EPI metric that tracks the trend in each country’s environmental performance to establish which are improving and which are declining showed that Jordan’s 10-year trend was -0.07 per cent out of ±45.88 per cent.

Three sub-categories come under the environmental health profile — health impacts, air quality and water sanitation. Under the ecosystem vitality, the EPI listed six measurement profiles: water resources; agriculture; forests; fisheries; biodiversity, habitat and climate; and energy.

The Kingdom scored 79.31 per cent in health impacts, 82.51 in air quality, 69.09 per cent in water and sanitation, 42.3 per cent in water resources, 84 in agriculture, 8.52 in biodiversity and habitat and 65.68 per cent in climate and energy.

The EPI 2014 did not list Jordan’s score in forest and fisheries.

Switzerland ranked first and Somalia came last on the EPI 2014, while none of the Arab states came in the top 20 countries on the index.

The United Arab Emirates ranked 25th, Saudi Arabia 35th, Israel 39th, Kuwait 42nd, Qatar 44th, Egypt 50, Tunisia 52nd, Turkey 66th, Syria 68th, Bahrain 82nd, Iran 83rd, Lebanon 91st, Algeria 92nd, Oman 99th, Libya 120th, Iraq 149th, Yemen 157th and Sudan 171st.