The Climate Change Performance Index 2021: Results

Please find the results for 2021 as well as interactive maps and graphs on our CCPI webpage.

Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 57 countries and the EU. It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.

In the CCPI 2021, Sweden reaches the best ranking with a “high” in the categories Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Renewable Energy and Climate Policy. Again, no country performs well enough in all index categories to achieve an overall “very high” rating in the index. Therefore, the first three ranks in the overall ranking and the category specific rankings remain empty. In the overall ranking, the United Kingdom (5th) and Denmark (6th) follow Sweden.

The CCPI 2021 shows that a global tuning point might be close, especially regarding worldwide emissions. This year’s index rated the emissions before the Covid-19 pandemic and could detect a small increase of worldwide emissions and a decrease in 32 ranked countries.

This year’s loser is the USA. The country is ranked last for the second consecutive year. It is yet to be determined whether president-elect Bidens’s announcements towards climate protecting politics are implemented which could change the country’s ranking in the upcoming years.

The CCPI assesses each country’s performance in four categories: GHG Emissions (40% of the overall ranking), Renewable Energy (20%), Energy Use (20%) and Climate Policy (20%). In addition, the question is answered to what extent the respective country acts adequately in the areas of Emissions, Renewable Energies and Energy Use in order to achieve the Paris climate targets. The CCPI’s unique climate policy section, evaluating countries’ national and international climate policy performance, is only possible through the continued support and contributions of around 400 climate and energy experts.