Global Environment Index Downgrades U.S. and China

The United States, China and other major industrial economies have dropped in an international scoreboard that ranks nations on their management of pollution and natural resources, while Iceland pushed Switzerland from the number one spot. The study, the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) , was produced by environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University's Earth Institute, and released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today. The EPI, which comes out every other year, ranks 163 countries on their performance across 25 measures in 10 categories including environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change. Along with Iceland, other top performers include Switzerland, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway. All have made substantial investments in environmental infrastructure and pollution control, and have policies designed to move toward long-term sustainability, according to the report. Occupying the bottom five positions: Togo, Angola, Mauritania, the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone -impoverished countries that lack basic environmental amenities and policy capacity. This is the third edition of the EPI.