State of India’s Environment Report 2021

In News

Recently, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has released the State of India’s Environment Report 2021.

• CSE is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi.
• It researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable.

Major Findings

• The report carries a special section on the state of the Indian states, particularly on their performance on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
  • No state was found to be on track to meet all the SDGs by 2030.
• Only a decade away from meeting these globally committed development goals, India occupies 117^th position among 192 countries on the progress list.
  • It shows that India’s rank has slipped by two places from 115^th in 2020 on the 17 SDGs.
• Reasons for Dropped Rank: India still lags behind on the SDG goals like ending hunger and achieving food security, achieving gender equality and building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation.
  • On India’s challenge of bringing safe water and sanitation to all citizens, the report offers a word of caution.
• The overall SDG score of India is 61.9 out of 100.
• India ranks below four South Asian countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh).
• State-wise Preparedness
  • Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have the best overall score and are on the path to achieving the SDGs in time.
  • Jharkhand and Bihar are the least prepared to meet the SDGs by 2030.
    • While Jharkhand lags in five of the SDGs, Bihar lags in seven.
• It also highlighted that India ranked 168 out of 180 countries in terms of Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2021.
  • EPI is calculated on various indicators, including environmental health, climate, air pollution, sanitation and drinking water, ecosystem services, biodiversity, etc.
  • In the EPI 2020 report by Yale University, India ranked 148 in the category of biodiversity and habitat which assesses countries’ actions toward retaining natural ecosystems and protecting the full range of biodiversity within their borders.
    • India was 21 positions behind Pakistan.

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

• It was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
• It provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
• The list was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
• There are 17 SDGs which are an urgent call for action by all countries, developed and developing, in a global partnership.

(Image Courtesy: SDGS)

Source: TH