India dropped two ranks in the United Nations’ Human Development Index this year, standing at 131 out of 189 countries.
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- HDI is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions.
- It is one of the best tools to keep track of the level of development of a country, as it combines all major social and economic indicators that are responsible for economic development.
- Pakistani economist Mahbub-ul-Haq created HDI in 1990 which was further used to measure the country’s development by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
- Every year UNDP ranks countries based on the HDI report released in their annual report.
- For the first time, the UNDP introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint.
- This is Planetary Pressures-adjusted HDI or PHDI.
- It measured the amount of fossil fuels, metals and other resources used to make the goods and services it consumes.
- The report found that no country has yet been able to achieve a very high level of development without putting a huge strain on natural resources.
- Norway, which tops the HDI, falls 15 places if this metric is used, leaving Ireland at the top of the table.
- In fact, 50 countries would drop entirely out of the “very high human development group” category, using this new metric PHDI.
- Australia falls 72 places in the ranking, while the US and Canada would fall 45 and 40 places respectively, reflecting their disproportionate impact on natural resources.
- The oil and the gas-rich Gulf States also fell steeply. China would drop 16 places from its current ranking of 85.
- If the Index were adjusted to assess the planetary pressures caused by each nation’s development, India would move up eight places in the rankings.
- China’s net emissions (8 gigatonnes) are 34% below its territorial emissions (12.5 gigatonnes) compared with 19% in India and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa.