2005 Environmental Sustainability Index

The Environmental Sustainability Index benchmarks the ability of nations to protect the environment over the next several decades by integrating 76 data sets into 21 indicators of environmental sustainability. The indicators allow comparison in environmental systems, reducing environmental stresses, reducing human vulnerability to environmental stresses, societal and institutional capacity to respond to environmental challenges and global stewardship. The indicators of the ESI provide a powerful tool for putting environmental decision-making on firmer analytical footing, an alternative to GDP and the Human Development Index for gauging country progress and a useful mechanism for the benchmarking environmental performance. The higher the ESI score, the better stance a country has to sustain its environmental conditions. The ESI also allows analyzing some of the determinants of high environmental performance, provides a foundation for data based environmental analysis and decision-making an policy-making and comparing one state to another.