In a move to curb the negative impacts of climate change and keep the Earth’s warming threshold below 1.5 Celsius, countries adopted and signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
Now almost 10 years later, some of the signatories are showing remarkable results in their efforts to mitigate a climate disaster – showing others how it’s done.
To measure the progress and track the climate protection performance, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is published annually – aiming to enhance transparency in international climate politics.
The 2024 CCPI “evaluated 63 countries and the European Union on their climate progress and policy, on a 100-point scale tied to their performance in four categories: greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, energy use, and climate policy, with emissions carrying the highest weight, at 40%, to the others’ 20%,” US News reports.
But in the overall rankings and in three of the four categories, no nation places first through third since, according to the study, none of them were “strong enough in all categories to achieve an overall very high rating.” No nation has the top two positions in the remaining renewable energy category.
The nations rating highest according to the Climate Change Performance Index are:
- Denmark – overall score of 75.59, best performing in the category of renewable energy
- Estonia – overall score of 72.07, best performing in renewable energy and climate policy
- Philippines – overall score of 70.70, best performing in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and energy use
- India – overall score of 70.25, best performing in GHG
- The Netherlands – overall score of 69.98, best performing in climate policy
- Morocco – overall score of 69.82, best performing in GHG
- Sweden – overall score of 69.39, best performing in renewable energy and GHG
- Chile – overall score of 68.74, best performing in GHG
- Norway – overall score of 67.48, best performing in renewable energy
- Portugal – overall score of 67.39, best performing in GHG
