New Zealand leads the world in meeting key environmental goals such as providing clean water and sanitation for its citizens, according to a study by researchers at Yale and Columbia.

The United States ranked 28th on the environmental performance survey being released Thursday as part of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The U.S. ranking was hurt by its high greenhouse gas emissions, overuse of water and unsustainable agricultural practices, the researchers said.

Researchers assessed how close 133 countries came to reaching 16 environmental goals, including air quality, biodiversity and sustainable energy. New Zealand had a score of 88 percent, followed by six northern European nations that all got 84 percent or higher. The United States met 78.5 percent of the survey’s environmental goals, while Niger ranked last, at 25.7 percent.

The United States ranked below nearly every major country in Western Europe, although it outperformed Russia and several Eastern European nations, including Hungary and Poland. Malaysia and Japan had the best scores among Asian countries. In most instances, developing countries in Africa and the Middle East lagged behind more industrialized nations.