Straits Times: Singapore leaps to fourth place in environment index

By: Grace Chua

SINGAPORE leaped nearly 50 places to No. 4 in the latest world index on environmental performance.

It went from 52nd of 132 countries in 2012, the last time it was ranked, to fourth spot overall behind Switzerland, Luxembourg and Australia. In fifth place was the Czech Republic, with Germany No. 6. The next highest Asian country was Japan in 26th spot.

But while it did top several individual measures, including child mortality and access to water, the country fared poorly in other areas, such as the protection of natural habitats - both land and sea.

The 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), by the Yale and Columbia universities in the United States, was released at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Saturday.

The biennial report, now in its 10th edition, is a report card of how 178 countries manage their environment, from climate change to pesticide use.

Singapore topped world rankings on wastewater treatment and water resources, and shared No. 1 spot with 22 other countries on low child mortality.

But it placed 15th in air quality, which was measured with the use of satellite data. And it was 109th in marine and terrestrial protected areas, putting it way behind Brunei which was tied at the top with eight others, Malaysia (No. 22), Indonesia (55) and Taiwan (66). South Korea was in 108th place.

Mr Kavickumar Muruganathan, resident environmental engineer at the non-governmental Singapore Environment Council (SEC), said that while Singapore has high standards of medical care leading to good health rankings, it could do more in terms of biodiversity and habitat protection.

"This however, will prove to be a challenging issue due to Singapore's land scarcity and the fact that we are a compact city state," he added.

The EPI, which is "designed to help governments gauge their success in addressing a range of environmental challenges", has its limits.

Its authors admitted there was not enough data to measure global progress on a variety of other environmental issues, such as wetland loss, recycling rates, and nuclear safety.