The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically benchmarking the environmental performance of a country's policies. It makes depressing reading for Ireland. And this happened under the stewardship of the Green Party. Yet another reason to be proud of yourselves Gormley, Ryan, Boyle and co.
EPI score summary;
2006 - Rank 10 EPI 83.3
2008 - Rank 34 EPI 82.7
2010 - Rank 44 EPI 67.1
Sources as follows;
http://www.yale.edu/epi/files/2008EPI_PolicymakerSummary_final.pdf
http://epi.yale.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Performance_Index
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The researchers themselves have said you cannot compare the rankings because they have used a different methodology to be fairer to developing countries:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/science/earth/27index.html?_r=1
In addition when you look at the metadata - http://epi.yale.edu/file_columns/000...i_metadata.pdf - most of their indicators are based on data from before 2008, so the 2010 EPI is merely an assessment of old data (or rather, a reassessment using a new methodology) - much of it predating the life of the current Irish government. As such, it has absolutely no relevance to the environmental performance of this government.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, environmental policy implementation has a well-documented timelag before improvements occur.
So, to sum up:
(a) EPI 2010 cannot be compared with previous years as it uses a different assement method and weighting.
(b) EPI 2010 is not based on the environmental performance in 2010 but, rather, is based on earlier data (in many cases prior to the life of this government).
(c) There is a time lag between the implementation of environmental policy and related improvements to the environment.
So, your blog post is not really that helpful and is, in fact, misleading.
@ Anonymous ... Interesting that you are saying that if Irelands goes up in the EPI rankings 2012 that the credit should go to Dick Roche!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting that you seem to be saying the opposite of the people in Yale University who prepare the EPI rankings. Do you think you know more than them on this matter and EPI rankings and EPI research methodologies? If so, perhaps you could enlighten us on your formal qualifications and experience in this area.
I understand the EPI data very well. I contend that you have misunderstood and misinterpreted, and I point to your analysis above as proof of this. I am willing to let the readers of my humble blog make up their own minds on your analysis and who is misinterpreting (either deliberately or not) ... I'm sure they will be able to judge who to trust on this, i.e. an anonymous internet poster or an international academic body from Yale University.
The Green Party and their apologists can spin this whatever way they wish but the bottom line is that the 2010 EPI report provides a detailed analysis for each country, showing its performance on each of the 25 basic indicators (see here), the ten core policy categories, and the two over-arching objectives of environmental public health and ecosystem vitality.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, each nation is benchmarked against others that are similarly situated with groupings based on geographic regions, level of development, trading blocs, and demographic characteristics. These peer group rankings make it easy to highlight leaders and laggards on an issue-by-issue basis and to identify “best practices.”
The fact is that Ireland's performance is as follows;
EPI score summary;
2006 - overall rank 10 ... EPI 83.3
2008 - overall rank 34 ... EPI 82.7
2010 - overall rank 44 ... EPI 67.1
Those stats tell their own story that no Green spin can hide.