Estonia as an Emer"land"

Authors: Nino Kokashvili, Irakli Barbakadze

Time: 18:00pm, 19^th of June, 2016. Location: Narva 25, 9^th floor, Tartu, Estonia.

Irakli: We need to start writing the first blog post, let’s choose the topic.

Nino: It should be related to Estonia in some way, but what is it famous for?

Irakli: Long winter, white nights, sauna …

Nino:  Hold on! Look through the window, how green Estonia is.

Irakli (googling): the greenest countries in the world… Hmm.

Nino: What is it?

Irakli: I guess I have found the exact topic.

The view from our window

The phase of economic development and technological progress coincides with environmental degradation. Nowadays environmental issues are widely discussed. This year marks a new era of the cooperation and partnership for international environmental policy. With 10 years’ experience EPI provides a baseline analysis to inform national-level metrics that gauge progress towards global environmental goals.

Based on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) data, which measures countries’ performance of environmental issues in two areas: human health and protection of ecosystems, Estonia is ranked as 8^th most environment protecting country in the world. The 1st four cleanest nations are Scandinavian countries. Estonia’s ranking is not as high as Nordic world, but it exceeds other Baltic states. Latvia is ranked as 22^nd and Lithuania – 23^rd.

Chart 1. Environmental Performance Index ranking, 2016



Source: Environmental Performance Index 2016 

The environment is not static, but dynamic. In the last decade Estonia has significantly progressed EPI score (by 5.9%) which is mostly due to improvements in following factors:

• Air quality;
• Water resources;
• Agriculture. 

EPI air quality subindex is a combination of air pollution and household air quality. With the household air quality, which measures indoor air cleanliness, Estonia is the number 1 country in the world. This is not unusual for them who have been in Estonia (The first thing that surprised me here is wooden houses and wood heating).

Chart 2. EPI sub indexes in 2006 and 2016 


Source: Environmental Performance Index 2016 

“Chronic exposure to air pollution produced by the combustion of cooking fuels is among the world’s most significant and most silent killers. The most recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project found household air pollution from solid fuel responsible for approximately 2.8 million premature deaths worldwide.”

Global Metrics For Environment, 2016

Even though Estonia uses woods as a main material for both:  heating and production, still it ranks as one of the leading countries with forest resources. Thus, while other nations lose forests, Estonia uses its renew-ability factor and makes it one of the most reliable and healthy energy source. 

Environmental aspect in Agriculture has experienced dramatic change in last 10 years in Estonia. The roots of the progress come from the efficient use of Nitrogen. As a result in this period the production of crop have increased significantly, around 98% and reached 4382 kg per ha.

Chart 3. Production of field crop per ha by year

Source: Estonian Statistics office


The next sub index which caused Estonia's such progress in EPI ranking is water resources. In Estonia around 88% of water is extracted from the surface water and 93% of water is used in Energy industry. It is clear from the graph that starting from 2009 the net supply of water (supply - demand) decreases every year which might be explained by the less wasted water. Moreover Estonia is 25th country in the world according to wastewater treatment.

Chart 4. Water supply and consumption by year

Source: Estonian Statistics office

To sum up, there is no doubt that Estonia is an environmental friendly country but on the other hand "A nation’s environment is not its own but is shared with its neighbors and the rest of the world. Pollution is not one country’s problem – everyone bears its burden".

Global Metrics For Environment, 2016

If we want to live in a healthy environment we should work together. I want to end the post with Georgian motto:

"Strength is in Unity"