While the goal of sustainable development is common to all economies, environmental performance differs between regions. The reasons for this divergence are varied. In particular, this work analyzed the possible existence of a causal relationship between the quality of institutions and environmental sustainability. By conducting a literature review, it was possible to identified authors who proposed a positive relationship. On the other hand, a more current approach posits weak institutional frameworks as the cause of environmental degradation, related to the idea of "natural resource curse". This analysis is based on data from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and an institutional quality indicator, developed by us, for a sample of 180 countries. The results show an outstanding correlation between the variables. In addition, Granger causality was tested for the panel using the method of Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012). These findings allow affirming a long-term statistical relationship, based on the existence of changes in institutional quality associated with variations in environmental performance.