The 2006 Environmental Performance Index, jointly produced by Yale University and Columbia University, puts the US, the world's largest economy, behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia Costa Rica and Chile.

The so-called EPI, to be formally presented in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum on January 26, ranks Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom two to five respectively.


The report praises the top-ranked countries for committing "significant resources and effort to environmental protection." The top five have achieved 85 percent success in meeting environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse-gas emissions.

The authors said in a statement that the United States was under-performing on critical issues such as renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and water resources.

“The lagging performance of the United States on environmental issues -– particularly on energy and climate change –- signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world,” said Gus Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

“Perhaps this ranking will serve as a wake up call to the American public and particularly to leaders in Washington.”

Before its ratification, the United States, the largest producer of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, pulled out in 2001 of the UN's 157-nation Kyoto Protocol, under which about 40 industrialized nations agreed to curb emissions until 2012. Washington, led by the Bush administration, said Kyoto would be an economic straitjacket.

The bottom half of the rankings is largely filled with the countries of Africa and Central and South Asia which have little capacity to invest in environmental infrastructure such as drinking water and sanitation systems, and have weak regulatory systems.

Pakistan and India both rank among the 20 lowest-scoring countries, with overall success ratios of 41.1 and 47.7, respectively. Niger is bottom of the ranking in 133rd place.

The study is based on 16 different environmental indicators relating to environmental health, air quality, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources and sustainable energy.

Even though Germany scores well in most categories, it ranks only 22nd overall, partly because it of its low score on habitat and biodiversity, a result of centuries of development that has left its population spread over most of the landscape, leaving little scope for habitat protection, according to the study.

The index is based on different methodology from the Environmental Sustainability index that was issued in 2002 and 2005. The new calculation is designed to focus more attention on governments' policies.

For example, the United Kingdom ranked 65th in last year's sustainability index, but fifth in the latest study. Among the reasons for the earlier low ranking, was that Britain cut down almost all its trees to build ships 500 years ago and before, something that modern British governments could not control.