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The article focuses on the environmental health protection issues in New Zealand and compares the environemtal law in the country with that in the U.S. The Environmental Performance Index ranked New Zealand first out of 133 countries in the areas of health, biodiversity, energy, water, air, and natural resources, in an announcement at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January 2006 in Davos, Switzerland. With 78.5/100 points, the U.S. ranked 28th. Demand for water for all purposes is increasing in New Zealand. The current pressures on freshwater ecosystems are less severe in New Zealand than those in many other industrialized countries. As the 1986 New Zealand Environment Act establishes the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment and its associated minister, it roughly corresponds to the 1969 U.S. National Environmental Policy Act.

The article reports on the ranking of countries in terms of environmental performance and handling of environmental issues based on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The EPI which was created by a team of environmental experts at the environment school at Yale University and the Earth Institute at Columbia University ranks New Zealand as the country that comes closest in complying with the Index objectives. The U.S. ranked 28th out of 133 countries.