When the EU agreed to reaffirm its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce emissions and combat climate change, scientists and environmentalists must have been relieved that at least someone got how important global warming was.

But despite apparent good intentions, things seem to be going nowhere. The annual Environmental Performance Index (EPI), shows how certain European countries are not doing more to (literally) "save the environment".

The EPI ranks 132 countries on ten policy categories -- from air pollution and water resources, to climate change and biodiversity. It assesses the global community’s performance with respect to established environmental policy goals, according to the report.

With data from international organizations, research institutions, government agencies, and academia, the newly-launched 'trend' EPI measures countries' performance changes over the last decade. This number is then translated to a score from -50 to 50, where 0 represents no change, 50 is the biggest improvement and -50 represents the biggest decline.