Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
Activists rate 60 states
Germany is improving in terms of climate protection
Of the countries with the highest emissions, Germany does one of the most for climate protection. This is the conclusion reached by the Germanwatch organization and the Newclimate Institute. But there is also clear criticism of German politics.
Germany’s climate protection efforts have improved again in an international comparison. In the climate protection index of the Germanwatch organization and the Newclimate Institute, Germany moved up six places and is now 13th. The Nordic countries Denmark, Sweden and Norway are again at the top. However, the first three places remained vacant due to inadequate measures. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan are bottom of the ranking.
According to the study, Germany improved primarily because of falling greenhouse gas emissions and its tightened climate targets for 2030 and 2045. The problem, however, is “the recent massive stagnation in the expansion of renewable energies”. Climate activists have also rated national climate policy as “weak” so far because the German government has not adequately explained how it intends to achieve the more stringent goals.
Specifically, the activists are calling for an early coal phase-out to 2030 and an end to subsidies for all fossil fuels. Legal obstacles to renewable energies, especially wind turbines, would also have to be removed in order to achieve the legally prescribed targets for 2030. Jan Burck from Germanwatch sees this as the “acid test” for the next federal government.
Places one to three not assigned
The global climate protection index has been published annually since 2005. This year’s evaluation compares climate protection in the 60 countries with the highest emissions. According to Germanwatch and the Newclimate Institute, the efforts of none of the countries are still in line with the Paris climate goals, i.e. limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial age. Therefore, places one to three were not awarded. The Scandinavians as well as Great Britain and Morocco are on the right track.
“Our index also shows that the race to zero greenhouse gas emissions has begun,” said Niklas Höhne from the Newclimate Institute. “It remains to be seen whether Germany can advance to the top group.” Far from the top and at the same time extremely important because of their high greenhouse gas emissions, however, are the G20 countries USA, Russia, Australia, South Korea, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Australia in particular does not seem to want to change much: The activists rate the climate policy of the Australian government as badly as possible with 0.0. Brazil and Algeria also do very poorly here.
The USA – repeatedly bottom of the climate index in the past – improved this year by six places in the overall ranking. This is mainly due to announcements by President Joe Biden, which have yet to be implemented, emphasize the study’s authors. Of the 27 EU countries, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary are in the lowest category of the overall ranking.
India is getting better
The largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, China, slipped four places down to 37th and is thus in the lower mid-range of the ranking. The biggest problem areas are therefore the high emissions and the very poor energy efficiency. Beijing’s 2030 targets in these two areas are also insufficient. “On the other hand, the trend in renewable energies is very good,” explains Germanwatch. Here China is ahead of Germany.
India, the third largest emitter, is in a good position in the ranking, three places ahead of Germany. Because relative to the number of inhabitants, the country’s greenhouse gas emissions are very low. The climate protection activists rate announcements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the world climate conference as positive. If these are implemented, “India is on the right track”.
In Glasgow, more than 190 countries are currently discussing the concrete implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. The negotiations of the COP26 should be concluded on Friday.