The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2026 puts Europe in the top 10 positions. The 2026 EPI ranks 177 countries on 47 environmental indicators across 12 issue categories representing critical sustainability challenges in environmental public health, ecosystem vitality, and climate change. The results for 2026 are as follows:
Category: Nature
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Copernicus Marine Service embarks on a new chapter of growth
MyOcean Health, a new public platform designed to make understanding the ocean as intuitive as checking the weather, has been launched. It combines Copernicus Marine data through interactive visualisations and six key indicators: sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, marine heatwaves, sea level, Arctic sea ice extent and Antarctic sea ice extent.
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£47m UK Government funding to protect and improve peatland
Thousands of hectares of vital peatland will be better protected and managed thanks to nearly £50m in new funding. This will help to reduce carbon emissions, better protect rural communities from the risks of wildfire and flooding and support local economies.
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United Nations: AI is threatening natural resources for billions
By 2030, AI's water use will match the needs of 1.3bn people while its power use triples that of 650m, a UN University investigation warns. It finds that AI is driving a surge in land, water and climate consequences cascading from the technology’s intense and fast-rising energy consumption. Consequently, the UN University scientists call for urgent, multi-stakeholder action in a new UNU-INWEH report.
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Commission presents first EU strategies for islands and coastal communities
The European Commission has adopted two dedicated strategies, one for EU islands and one for EU coastal communities, setting out for the first time a coordinated European approach to support both types of territories and unlock their long-term potential. The two initiatives introduce a targeted approach, dedicated to the specific needs and unique challenges of: 17m people living on more than 4,000 islands across 16 EU Member States; and 95m people living along the 70,000km of EU coastlines and in coastal areas across 22 EU Member States.
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EU deploys largest ever wildfire response for 2026 summer
With wildfire risks rising across Europe, the European Commission is helping finance and coordinate the deployment of a record number of firefighters, aircraft and emergency experts under the Civil Protection Mechanism. 777 firefighters from 14 European countries will be strategically pre-positioned in high-risk areas across Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.
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World Ocean Assessment: the most important book about the ocean written
The 1,600-page assessment is the result of more than five years of work by 550 experts from 86 countries, offering a detailed overview of the mounting pressures on the ocean and the action needed to safeguard it. The report provides a foundation for “understanding the profound changes that are underway, from climate-driven shifts to biodiversity loss, and for shaping effective action both at the local level, but also at the global level”. Despite decades of progress, vast areas of the ocean, particularly the deep sea, remain poorly understood.
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A path to €5k-a-month incomes for all countries within +1.8°C of warming
The World Inequality Lab has launched the Global Justice Report: a Plan for Equality and Prosperity Within Planetary Boundaries, during the opening of the World Inequality Conference 2026. The report sets out a new vision for global progress in the 21st century: grounding human development and equality in planetary habitability. It explores the conditions under which the world could move toward this horizon and traces an economically and ecologically consistent transition path from 2026 to 2100.
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British way of life under threat from heat, flooding and drought
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has published A Well-Adapted UK. This new report sets out a comprehensive package of solutions to address the growing impacts of climate change affecting every aspect of life in the UK. The country’s independent climate advisors identify better cooling, flood protection and a more secure water supply as the most critical priorities to protect the UK from the three biggest climate risks – heat, flooding and drought.
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Commission: plan to secure Europe’s fertiliser supply and food security
The European Commission has adopted the Fertiliser Action Plan: an initiative to support farmers facing rising fertiliser costs and scarcity, reinforce domestic production and reduce Europe's dependency on imports. The Plan will directly help to ensure food security and reinforce Europe's strategic autonomy, while pursuing high climate and environmental goals.
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The world cannot wait any longer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
The UK, alongside co-hosts South Africa, British International Investment and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, have convened a broad coalitions of partners, from governments, international organisations, business, technology philanthropy and civil society to rethink how to combine strengths in addressing global challenges, such as economic, climate and health shocks.
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New coalition to set sustainability standards for AI data centres
Clear, credible benchmarks for sustainable data centre are being developed through the Greening AI Data Centres Coalition (GADCC). The coalition brings together nine of the world’s leading built environment, sustainability and finance organisations in response to the rapid global growth of AI-driven data centres and the increasing pressures these facilities place on energy systems and networks, water resources and local communities.
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World Bank Group to improve water security for 1bn people
The World Bank Group, in partnership with multilateral development banks, development finance institutions and key partners, has launched Water Forward, a global platform to help improve water security for 1bn people by 2030. The platform will align policy reforms, financing, and partnerships to expand reliable water services and strengthen systems against droughts and floods, essential conditions for job creation.
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Canada’s Carney launches C$3.8bn strategy to protect nature
To protect Canada’s lands and waters, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has launched 'A Force of Nature: Canada’s Strategy to Protect Nature'. With an investment of C$3.8bn, Canada’s new nature strategy will protect and restore critical habitats, ensure industrial strategies complement our conservation efforts, and mobilise new capital for nature.
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EIC awards €118m to 30 breakthrough research projects
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has selected 30 new projects under the 2025 EIC Pathfinder Challenges Call for cutting edge research projects delivering breakthroughs in four strategic areas: biotech for climate resilient crops and plant-based biomanufacturing; generative-AI based agents to revolutionise medical diagnosis; robot collectives; and waste-to-value devices - circular production of renewable fuels, chemicals, and materials.