Comparing development sustainability in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine with special respect to rural areas

A comparison of environmental sustainability in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine using the Environmental Sustainability Index calculated by the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy of Yale University shows a significant advantage of Belarus over Poland and Ukraine while a slight advantage of Poland over Ukraine. Belarus with ESI score of 52.8 points ranked 47, Ukraine with 44.7 points ranked 108 while Poland with 45.0 points ranked 102 among the 146 classified countries of the world. The state of natural environment in Belarus and Ukraine seems to be much better, while Poland has a distictive advantage with respect to the institutional issues in environmental management. All three countries have roughly similar impact on global environment, of a predominantly negative nature, with Belarus qualifying somewhat better in this respect.