ROME -- According to the environmental performance index 2016, Finland is the greenest country in the world. Finland, with a score of 90.68, is followed by Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia. Italy goes to the 29^th place, with 84.48. UK gets the 12^th place with 87.38 and USA the 26^th, with 84.72

 The environmental performance index (EPI) ranks countries’ performance on environmental issues in two areas: protection of human health and protection of ecosystems. EPI is constructed through the calculation and aggregation of nine issues that include more than 20 indicators.

 According to the report, Finland’s top ranking is mostly based on country’s societal commitment to achieve carbon-neutral society that does not exceed nature’s carrying capacity by 2050. The report indicates that Finland has actionable goals and measurable indicators of sustainable development. Finland performed very well in the areas of health impacts, water and sanitation, and biodiversity and habitat.Finland’s goal of consuming 38 percent of their final energy from renewable sources by 2020 is legally binding, and the country already produce nearly two-thirds of its electricity from renewable or nuclear power sources.

 According to a survey by the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, Finland has 1600 cleantech companies. SMEs and micro companies make up the majority of the total (70%) while large and giant companies comprise less than third of the whole (30 percent).

 Relative to the population, Finland is the world’s leading researcher in the energy and environment field. More than 40 percent of the Finnish public R&D funding goes into the energy and environment sector, and more than a third of public R&D investments are made in cleantech.

 Generally speaking the report shows that world is making progress addressing some environmental issues while others have worsened considerably. There are promising trends in health impacts, access to drinking water and in access to sanitation. Air quality and fisheries, however, exhibit troubling declines.

 The 2016 Environmental Performance Index is a project lead by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP) and Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group at Yale University (Data-Driven Yale), the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Samuel Family Foundation, McCall MacBain Foundation, and the World Economic Forum.

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