Thursday, 25 June 2026

On Top Of The World!


  

The attention of the world is focused, at time of writing, on 48 countries. Not necessarily those most powerful (though some are included) or the most disruptive (though one or two are there too). These are the footballing powers of the world, from Brazil to Japan. I thought it might be fun to pit them against each other in an environmental context as well.

 

In 2024 (the latest available) the Yale Centre of Environmental Law and Policy prepared a report for the World Economic Policy forum in Geneva (http://epi.yale.edu/). They used a whole raft of 58 factors, from air and water pollution to polices on climate change and biodiversity to assess progress at mitigating climate change, safeguarding ecosystem vitality, and promoting environmental health - an Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Note that Curaçao doesn't get a separate EPI rating, so unfortunately they are excluded from this game.

 

So, cut to the chase, who won?? Well, the overall winner environmentally was Estonia, but they didn't make the FIFA finals. So, step forward…..

 

Germany! 3rd in the EPI rankings. Then the UK (ie. England and Scotland) at 5th, and Sweden 6th. France are top for FIFA, but 12th for the EPI.

 

One would expect wealthy countries to top both lists, as they can afford the necessary infrastructure, and indeed plotting one against the other does give a significant correlation, although amongst the (many!) problems with doing this are Curaçao's lack of an EPI rating, and I have given the same UK EPI rating to England and Scotland. But there is a lot of variation in the plot, most obviously with Argentina who are 3rd in the FIFA rankings, but 81st in those of the EPI. Likewise Mexico and Uruguay are 15 and 17 for FIFA, but 97 and 98 for the EPI. In contrast New Zealand is rated a reasonable 32 in the world environmentally, but 85th in football.

 

So who are the bad boys? Bottom of our list are Haiti (FIFA 83, EPI 150) and Iraq (FIFA 57, EPI 172). Haiti has had many severe and well documented problems, politically and even an earthquake and cholera epidemic in 2010. It has the worst infant mortality in the Americas. Add massive gang violence and it is no surprise that factors such as "protected area effectiveness" score very low. Deforestation has been huge, for agriculture but also because charcoal is the primary source of energy for Haitians, and in 2018 was the second largest agriculture related value chain in the country (FAO, 2018). 

 

Iraq is of course relatively wealthy, and it's security problems have hopefully ended. But it's problems in this context are mainly climate based. A naturally hot, arid, country Iraq is ranked 5th most vulnerable in the world to climate change by the United Nations.  Rainfall has decreased dramatically, leading to dust storms and loss of agricultural land. Water has become a source of tension with neighbours and fellow World Cup competitors Turkey and Iran, with accusations by Iraq of illegal damming and by Turkey and Iran blaming poor water management (Hall & Harper 2023).

 

So, Germany for the cup? Well, it would surprise absolutely nobody if Germany reach the final, but let's say they lose there to Haiti, who could do with some good news!

 

References

 

FAO (2018). Charcoal in Haiti - A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends. https://www.fao.org/wood-energy-info-portal/search/detail/en/c/1306927/

 

Hall, N., Harper, C. (2023). Local to Global: Tensions Course through Iraq’s Waterways. Center for Strategic and International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/local-global-tensions-course-through-iraqs-waterways

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