This article originally provided by americanprogressaction.org

January 23, 2008

U.S. Environmental Performance Ranks At Bottom of G8 Countries

 A new international ranking by Yale and Columbia Universities puts the U.S. environmental performance at "the bottom of the Group of 8 industrialized nations and 39th among the 149 countries on the list." The ranking evaluates sanitation, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and other measures. Daniel Esty, the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the study's lead author, noted that Switzerland's top ranking was based on the fact that it is "the most greenhouse gas efficient economy in the developed world." The United States, which scored an 81 out of a possible 100, has "a bottom-tier performance in greenhouse gas emissions," Esty said. Recently, President Bush sent out invitations to 17 other countries to attend a "major emitters" meeting in Hawaii at the end of January, where the White House will propose voluntary targets for emissions cuts. In December, the European Union -- which encompasses nearly all the best performers in the new environmental study -- threatened to boycott the talks if the United States remained recalcitrant about specific emissions cuts at the Bali conference.