Bangladesh is the fourth worst country in reducing environmental pollution, according to the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022 report.
Bangladesh's position in the index declined 15 steps to 177th out of 180 countries in 2022, the report showed. It had ranked 162nd in the EPI 2020.
The country's overall score declined to 23.10 points in 2022 from 29 in 2020.
EPI 2022 considers 40 performance indicators under eleven issues including air quality, water and sanitation, heavy metals, biodiversity and habitat, forests, fisheries, climate and energy, air pollution, water resources, agriculture, etc., to prepare the report.
The bi-annual report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities with support from The McCall MacBain Foundation.
Out of the five worst performers, four are from the South Asia. India is the worst performer (180th out of 180 countries) followed by Myanmar (179th), Vietnam (178th) and Pakistan (176th). Afghanistan is the best performer with its 81st position followed by Bhutan (85th), Maldives 113th, Sri Lanka 132nd and Nepal 162nd.
Denmark, UK, Finland, Malta and Sweden were the five best performing countries respectively to deal with environmental issues, said the report.
Excluding fisheries and agriculture, Bangladesh's dealing with other issues like biodiversity habitat, acidification, water resources, health, air quality, heavy metal, waste management, climate policy, etc., were very pitiable said the report.
Environment, forest and climate change ministry's additional secretary Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik told the FE that taking into account environment or climate change issues, Bangladesh has been showing tremendous development for the last one decade.
He said the country was one of the first forty nations to formulate the national determent contribution (NDC) on Carbon emission.
Bangladesh is also one of the first countries to formulate climate change trust fund (BCCTF) with its own resources to deal with the issue, he noted.
He said air quality of Dhaka can't represent the whole Bangladesh.
He claimed the report was prepared without taking in consideration data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) or the environment or forest departments.
He viewed that the Yale and the Columbia University should converse with Bangladeshi data deliverers before preparing such report.
However, the EPI 2022 found outstanding performance of the country in the agriculture and fisheries indicators.
The country has ranked 20th in the fisheries while 72nd in the pesticide management indicator.
In the Sustainable Nitrogen Management Index (SNMI), Bangladesh's position is pretty good-54th.
SNMI seeks to balance efficient application of nitrogen fertiliser with maximum crop yields as a measure of the environmental performance of agricultural production.
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