China ranks 87th in terms of global environmental competitiveness among 133 countries, a report by Fujian Normal University found.

The top three were Switzerland, Germany and Norway, according to the report, released on Thursday.

Li Jianping, vice-president of the Fujian Federation of Social Science Circles, said the report is the world's first covering global environmental competitiveness.

"It is a new measurement in the context of the contradiction between world economic development and environmental protection," he said.

Five indexes; ecological environment, resources environment, environmental management, coordination and impacts, were the major categories evaluated.

Although lagging behind in four indexes, China's environmental management ranked sixth worldwide. Environmental management focuses on several aspects, such as the area of plantations and the proportion of agricultural land.

Li said the index reveals how much human effort had been made on environmental protection. "However, based on our large population and unique industrial pattern, China needs to do more," he said.