Highlights
- European countries continue to lead global environmental performance, with Estonia ranking first in the 2026 EPI.
- More than half of EPI indicators now use AI-enabled tools, including satellite data analysis to track hard-to-measure environmental conditions.
- Few countries are on track for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and progress has slowed on pollution control and natural resource management.
- The United States ranks 27th overall, performing well on environmental health but lagging on biodiversity and climate metrics.
European countries continue to lead the world in environmental performance, according to the 2026 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a biennial assessment produced by researchers at the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia Climate School’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information (CIESIN). (See the 2024 EPI assessment here.) Yet, the new assessment finds that few countries are on track to meet the global goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and that progress has slowed across a range of pollution control and natural resource management challenges.
The report also shows how advances in artificial intelligence are giving researchers a clearer picture of environmental change around the world.
Estonia ranks first in the 2026 EPI, driven in large part by a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from power generation over the past decade. The country has ramped up renewable electricity and scaled back fossil fuel production, while also ranking among the world’s top performers on biodiversity and ecosystem protection.
European countries hold all but one of the top 20 positions in this year’s ranking, reflecting strong performance on environmental health and climate change mitigation. After Estonia, the top five are Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands.
The 2026 EPI evaluates 177 countries using 47 indicators across 12 issue categories spanning environmental health, ecosystem vitality and climate change.
“Europe’s strong showing is partially attributable to very strong environmental regulations and a commitment to decarbonization,” said CIESIN Director Alex de Sherbinin, a coauthor of the index. “The U.S. risks falling even further behind in the coming years as it backslides on environmental commitments.”
The United States ranks 27th overall. It performs well on environmental health measures, but scores lower on biodiversity protection and climate change metrics. Although U.S. greenhouse gas emissions declined by 9.6% between 2014 and 2024, the report projects emissions will remain well above the level needed to achieve net-zero by 2050.
Despite their strong overall performance, even the highest-ranked European countries face significant sustainability challenges. Agricultural sustainability remains a weak spot for many of them and weighs down the rankings of countries elsewhere. Japan, the only non-European country in the top 20, ranks 139th in agricultural sustainability.
“If countries aim to maintain a trajectory toward net-zero emissions by 2050, they will need to continually achieve large emissions reductions, which will require additional policies in the future,” said Zach Wendling, lead author of the 2026 EPI.
At the other end of the rankings, Laos and India rank among the lowest-performing countries. India’s low score reflects severe air pollution, continued reliance on coal-fired power and limited biodiversity protections.
The report also points to Botswana and Costa Rica as examples of countries that have paired strong economic growth with strong sustainability outcomes, suggesting that development does not have to come at an environmental cost.
China ranks 129th overall, reflecting poor performance on climate change metrics despite improvements in indoor air pollution, water sanitation and solid waste management. Although the country has invested heavily in clean energy, electric vehicles and advanced battery technologies, its continued reliance on coal-fired power remains a major obstacle to achieving net-zero emissions.
More than half of the EPI’s 47 indicators now rely on AI-enabled tools, including techniques that analyze satellite data to provide new insights into ecosystems and other environmental conditions that were previously difficult to measure.
“Artificial intelligence and other new technologies are giving us an ever more accurate understanding of the state of the world’s environmental progress, but the picture they paint should give us pause,” said Dan Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. “Even the most high-performing countries are failing to fully tackle some of the planet’s most critical sustainability challenges.”
Among the AI-enabled datasets incorporated into the 2026 EPI is a new global indicator tracking grassland conservation, a task that researchers once considered nearly impossible at this scale. Developed by the Global Pasture Watch research consortium, the dataset shows that half of the world’s grasslands are already degraded, while the remaining grasslands are under threat from human encroachment and climate change.
The full 2026 Environmental Performance Index, including country rankings, country profiles and supporting materials, is available at https://epi.yale.edu/downloads.
