Ireland slips to 22nd in global rankings

AN EMERGING economy has been ranked for the first time in the annual “climate change performance index” compiled by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network (Can) Europe.

Although none of the 57 countries compared for the strength of their climate protection performance and policies were rated good enough to gain the three top places, Brazil nudged ahead of Sweden in the rankings.

Ireland is 22nd, down one place from last year, and rather embarrassingly sandwiched between much less developed Algeria and Indonesia – mainly because “nothing like enough real mitigation action has actually been delivered”, according to Pat Finnegan, of Grian.

Although he conceded that climate change “is slowly rising up the public and political agenda”, Mr Finnegan – who carried out the national assessment – said the latest figures for Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions merely confirmed its low ranking.

Matthias Duwe, director of Can Europe, said it was “great to see emerging economies like Brazil moving up the rankings” as this sent a clear message to other countries represented at the Copenhagen climate conference that they were committed to combat global warming.

This year’s “bottom-of-the-barrel finishers” were Canada and Saudi Arabia. The Canadian government delayed the announcement of any major new climate policies in advance of Copenhagen, ensuring that Canada won second-to-last place for the second year in a row.

Brazil and Britain ranked high in this year’s index, mainly because they had both adopted “progressive domestic climate legislation”. While the US under President Barack Obama took “a small step up the ladder”, it remains in a very low position – 53rd.

This year’s index was the fifth, using the latest available data, including absolute emission figures provided by the International Energy Agency, weighted for emission trends, worth 30 per cent of the marks.

The raw data is complemented by an assessment (worth 20 per cent) of their domestic and international climate policies by climate experts in each country.