Status of Iran in Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) reports in 2005, 2006 and 2008

The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) have received increasing attention in recent decades. In this paper we discussed the status of Iran based on these indices. Result shows that the two indices, while similar in some way, are fundamentally different in that EPI applies a proximity to target approach, which indicates if a country is getting closer to some absolute bench mark of sustainability (for the measures we have data for), and the ESI only identifies how a country performs relative to other countries. The above argument is not necessarily intended to prove nor does not imply that Iran’s status among other countries has been descending or ascending. Because of the incomplete and imprecise nature of the data that was used is the ESI and EPI analyses, timely and consistent data reporting to the ESI/EPI centers would be an important step to reflect Iran’s actual status to the international community.