Germanwatch - Climate Change Performance Index

The German environmental NGO Germanwatch has launched a new international climate protection index, saying it offers a better basis for comparing countries' efforts to combat global warming.

According to Germanwatch, the new Climate Change Performance Index will be an effective weapon in the struggle to reverse the dangerous effects of climate change, because, for the first time, it compares the effects of climate policy in the 53 countries that account for 90 percent of harmful emissions worldwide.

The index is the result of calculating three different values: The current trend in a country's greenhouse gas emissions, in which the emissions of the transport, construction, industry, and energy sectors are measured; the base indicator measuring the amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere per person and per energy unit used; and the country's climate change policies -- the laws and financial incentives implemented to reduce emissions levels and improve energy efficiency. The expected results of these policies are also included in the calculation. The outcome is a more informed, multi-faceted assessment of each country's emissions-reducing performance and potential.

Surprising results

The index's initial findings surprised even some top experts in the field, such as Hartmut Grassl, former director of both the World Climate Research Program and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg.

"When you integrate the trends and the policy-making aspect, then the result is a rearrangement of the typical ranking we saw up until now," said Grassl. "Previously, we always saw who had most emissions per capita, or as an entire country. Now you have an index which includes the recent trends plus the climate policy in the international arena."

The index puts Germany in fifth place overall out of the 53 nations included in the comparison. The United States was number 52, ahead of only Saudi Arabia, while the top three nations were Iceland, Latvia, and Great Britain. The latter has traditionally not been seen as a leader in climate protection, as its emissions levels, rather than falling, are at a standstill. On the other hand, China proved to be better than previously thought, due to its strong focus on utilizing renewable energy technologies.