For the third year in a row, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has ranked 56 countries--collectively responsible for over 90% of energy-related CO2 emissions--based on their emissions trends and efforts to combat global warming. The 2008 rankings depict a story similar to that of the 2007 edition: the world's top two emitters, the United States and China, place troublingly low, while European countries occupy six of the top ten spots. Interestingly, China moved up in the rankings since last year due to improvements in domestic and international climate policy, whereas the United States fell two places to rank second to last, only ahead of Saudi Arabia.

Climate Change Performance Index 2008

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Source: Germanwatch, 2007

Germanwatch, a non-profit environmental group, scored countries based on three factors.

• emissions trends (50% weighting)
• emissions levels (30%)
• climate policy (20%)

The results from the 2008 CCPI demonstrate that no country, not even top-ranking Sweden, is currently doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change (greater than two-degree warming). By introducing standardized criteria to evaluate and compare countries' contributions to and efforts to combat climate change, the Index enhances transparency of international climate politics. Ideally, it will also increase political and societal pressure for preventative action, particularly in those countries at the bottom of the list.

Key Data for the 10 Largest Energy-Related CO2 Emitters

Source: Germanwatch, 2007

View the complete rankings for all 56 countries

Emissions from Land Use Change Still Lacking

The CCPI does not include emissions from land use change in its calculations, largely because data from this sector remain incomplete. However, land use change, and particularly deforestation, is responsible for at least 20 percent of global CO2 emissions. Brazil and Indonesia are the biggest culprits, annually losing 1.1 and 1.9 million hectares of tropical rainforest respectively, mostly to expanding agriculture. The lack of country-level data on greenhouse gas emissions is a serious impediment to the effectiveness of the CCPI and to climate change prevention efforts worldwide. Enhancing the inclusion of deforestation and other land use issues in international climate negotiations is a central theme of this year's Conference of the Parties (COP-13) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), currently being held in Bali, Indonesia.

RELATED LINKS:

Full report from the CCPI 2008

UNFCCC home

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Map: CO2 Emissions from Land Use Change

EarthTrends

"Beyond Kyoto: A Broader Policy on Climate Change" (five part series)

Emissions data

Map: CO2 Emission Per Capita, 1999

Feature article: "Climate Protection in a Disparate World"