New Zealand has scooped the global top trophy for its green credentials, according to the new 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released on Thursday in Davos.

Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Britain were ranked the second to fifth respectively.

The United States, which is a major polluter of the world, was at 28th place, significantly lower down the list than other highly-developed countries like Britain and Canada (No. 8).

The U.S.'s score reflects a strong performance on some environmental health issues, but shows the country is under-performing in critical areas such as renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions and water resources, said an EPI press release.

"The lagging performance of the United States on environmental issues -- particularly on energy and climate change -- signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world, " said Gus Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. "Perhaps this ranking will serve as a wake-up call to the American public and particularly to leaders in Washington."

The index was produced by a team of environment experts at Speth's school and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

China, another big polluter, ranks 94th, under-performing in the same income group and geographic group of countries.

The five worse performing countries are Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger, all under-developed countries in Africa.

The conclusions of the index indicate that policy choice does make a difference to the environment. For instance, a country's wealth emerges as a significant determinant of its environmental performance.

The index reveals that nations at all levels of economic development face serious environmental challenges. Industrialized countries often suffer from pollution and degraded ecosystems while developing countries must confront the additional challenge of managing environmental health stresses such as water-borne diseases and indoor air pollution, said the press release.

The EPI identifies targets for environmental performance and gauges how close each country comes to these goals. Six policy areas are examined: environmental health, air quality, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources, and sustainable energy.

The index also provides "peer group" rankings for each country so nations can check their performance against their neighbors, who often face similar environmental challenges.

Owing to the unavailability of data, only 133 countries/territories are included in the index.

Source: Xinhua