How does YOUR country rank on climate change?

10.12.2015 17:30

As the world looks to leaders in Paris to hammer out a new climate change deal, countries have been ranked on their performance on tackling global warming in a new report.

Denmark emerged at the top of the list as the country doing the most to combat dangerous global warming, with the UK close behind.

However, Saudi Arabia was ranked in the lowest position while Australia was third from last, just a day after the country's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said Australia is meeting and beating its targets on climate change.

The report, by Climate Action Network Europe (CAN) and Germanwatch was released at the Paris climate summit (COP21), where leaders are trying to work out how to tackle climate change.

The conference is the last chance for 195 countries to agree on a strategy since members agreed in 1992 to stabilise greenhouse gases 'at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.'

The Climate Change Performance Index 2016 (CCPI) measures emission levels per capita as well as a country's use of renewable energy and its climate change policies.

While no country was awarded first to third place, because 'no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change', Denmark took fourth place – the top ranking out of 58 countries.

The UK, Sweden, Belgium and France make up the remaining top five.

The UK has moved up the rankings by one place due to its expansion of renewable energy infrastructure and plans to phase out coal-fired power stations, The Guardian reported.

'EU countries still rank high, profiting from their early start in development of climate policies,' said Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.

'However, as countries all over the world have now started to invest in renewable energy on a massive scale, the EU risks falling behind.'

'The coming two years, when the EU will shape its future climate and energy policies, will define the speed of its transition to a fossil fuel free economy.'

Germany came in 22nd, the US in 34th and China in 47th, rated 'poor'.

But the two largest emitters – the US and China - have both improved their ranking on the index.

This is due to better policy evaluations, due to their massive investments in renewable energy and their start to shift energy production away from coal.

'We see global trends, indicating promising shifts in some of the most relevant sectors for climate protection and important steps towards a transformation of the energy system,' said Jan Burck of Germanwatch and author of the CCPI.

'The energy intensity of the global economy is further declining.

CLIMATE CHANGE PERFORMANCE INDEX: OVERALL RANKING

The CCPI ranks countries according to their emissions, efficiency, development of emissions, renewable energy and climate policy.

While the positions 1-3 were not awarded, because 'no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change' we have listed countries from 1-58 for ease of reading. A country's score is shown in brackets

1 - Denmark (71.19)

2 - United Kingdom (70.13)

3 - Sweden (69.91)

4 - Belgium (68.73)

5 - France (65.97)

6 - Cyprus (65.12)

7 - Morocco (63.76)

8 - Italy (62.98)

9 - Ireland (62.65)

10 - Luxembourg (62.47)

11 - Switzerland (62.09)

12 - Malta (61.82)