No gold medal winners in climate protection competition

Nairobi, 13 November 2006: "If climate change protection were an Olympic Discipline, no country would make it to the medal ranks", concludes Matthias Duwe, Director of Climate Action Europe, based on the outcome of the country rankings that forms the base of the 2007 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The CCPI results clearly show that current efforts to stop dangerous climate change are insufficient.

However, the seven European countries, led by Sweden, that make up the TOP10 together with three rapidly industrialising countries (Argentina, Brazil, India) constitute significant potential for a new progressive climate change coalition. Other countries such as South Africa and China, both of which have high emissions but score well on climate policy, could support such an alliance of progressive Parties.

A few exceptions notwithstanding, the big emitters among the 56 countries that form the CCPI are not moving forward and even take steps back on climate protection. Furthermore, even those countries that have made it into the upper ranks are progressing rather slowly. The UK and Germany, for example, score well overall (ranks 2 and 5 respectively), but need to improve in certain areas. Through its wide range of factors considered, the index even allows an evaluation of the effectiveness of climate policy measures - like renewable energy support and emissions trading.

Christoph Bals, political director of Germanwatch, points out that the Index can highlight changes in policy. "If the USA, currently among the bottom five, were to exercise an international climate policy stance as progressive as the UK, it would move up more than 30 places".

Jan Burck and other Germanwatch experts developed the CCPI methodology, which is meant to help increase transparency in international climate policy. The Index compares the climate protection efforts of 56 industrialised and rapidly industrialising countries, that together make up more than 90% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The CCPI was published for the first time earlier in 2006, and an updated version with the latest data and insights is being presented at the World Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Recently, its usage for country ratings in financial markets was agreed with German rating agency OEKOM Research in Munich.

The Climate Change Performance Index allows for a thorough and reliable comparison between countries, because it does not only look at emission volumes of a given country, but analyses trends in emission and even includes an assessment of the climate policies at both domestic and international level respectively. The Index is based on data sets from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and a qualitative survey among national experts who supplied detailed policy assessments.

Contact:

• Christoph Bals, Germanwatch, +254-724 306 899; bals@germanwatch.org
• Matthias Duwe, CAN-Europe +254-720 081 668; matthias@climnet.org
• Jan Burck, Germanwatch, +254 724 304 862; burck@germanwatch.org