Denmark has an outstanding performance in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 4 out of 180 countries in 2016. This recent and significant increase in ranking and performance is mostly due to remarkable achievements in energy efficiency and reductions in CO2 emission levels. A future implementation of air quality improvements are expected. The EPI was established in 2001 by the World Economic Forum as a global gauge to measure how well individual countries perform in implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental areas where Denmark performs best (i.e. lowest ranking) are sanitation (12), water resource management (13) and health impacts of environmental issues (14), followed closely by the area of biodiversity and habitat. The latter are due to the many protection laws and protected areas of significance within the country even though the EPI is not considering how well these laws and regulations are affecting the current biodiversity and habitats in reality; one of many weaknesses in the EPI.[65] Denmark performs worst (i.e. highest ranking) in the areas of environmental effects of fisheries (128)[66] and forest management (96). The very poor ranking in the fisheries area are due to alarmingly low and continually rapidly declining fish stocks, placing Denmark among the worst performing countries of the world
