The 10 cleanest countries in the world

Based on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), American scientists have released a list of the 10 countries that are considered to be the cleanest in the world.

EPI (Environmental Performance Index) index is used to evaluate the effectiveness of a country's environmental protection activities. EPI has a scale from 100 (best environmental protection) to 0 (least environmental protection) with 25 different criteria such as fishing grounds, carbon emissions, forests, quality water, trees and animals.

EPI helps to comprehensively assess the world's environmental challenges as well as how each country copes with these challenges.

Here are 10 countries with the highest EPI score according to US scientists' rankings.

1. Iceland

EPI index : 93.5

Average GDP : 36,000 USD

Although Iceland's GDP averaged only 84.8 points on the scale, Iceland's air pollution criteria almost reached an absolute score of 97.4 points.

2. Switzerland

EPI index : 89.1

Average GDP : 37,000 USD

Switzerland has indicators of forestry, water, bio-indicators, . almost absolute. However, like other industrialized countries, Switzerland's lowest score is air pollution (impact on the ecological system).

3. Costa Rica

EPI index : 86.4

Average GDP : USD 9,600

A country in developing countries can rank third enough to see the nation's natural advantages and extremely rich natural resources. If it is wise to come up with the right development strategy, Costa Rica can avoid the traces of developed countries in the past, pollute the environment and then come back and start processing.

4. Sweden

EPI index : 86

Average GDP : 33,400 USD

5. Norway

EPI index: 81.1

Average GDP : 48,000 USD

Norway is an extremely wealthy country with huge reserves of oil and natural gas. However, with a population of only 4.7 million people, the impact of this fossil fuel source on global climate change cannot be attributed to Norway, but countries that use them responsibly.

6. Maurice

EPI index : 80.6

Average GDP : 10,000 USD

As a small island in eastern Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, Maurice is, however, the highest EPI in Africa with a score of 80.6. While the second country in the continent has an EPI of only 60.5. The complete isolation from the rest of the world is an advantage of Maurice to help this island maintain low pollution.

7. France

EPI index : 78.2

Average GDP : USD 31,000

Among the top 10 countries, the air and water quality criteria for French fisheries management have very high scores. One advantage of this country on EPI scale is the strong development of nuclear power plants.

8. Australia

EPI index : 78.1

Average GDP : 35,000 USD

With an absolute score in terms of protecting populations of organisms, Australia has been able to stand on par with France in the world's 10 cleanest countries.

9. Cuba

EPI index: 78.1

Average GDP : 8500 USD

Although there are still many concerns plus the criteria for average income only reached 65.7 points, however, Cuba still achieved 78.1 points in the EPI score of American scientists.

10. Colombia

EPI index: 76.8

Average GDP: 7,600 USD

In the list of 10 countries, Colombia is the poorest country. The reason why Colombia won such a high position in the rankings is because of its extremely favorable natural conditions and natural resources. Colombia's carbon footprint is quite low because the hydropower system can satisfy up to 70% of its electricity. This is why, with the average GDP index, Colombia only got 51 points but the EPI index in terms of biological skin protection criteria reached 82.7 points.