THE FINANCIAL crisis has boosted Ireland’s ranking to 17th place among the 58 countries featured in the annual Climate Change Performance index compiled by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network (Can) Europe.
An unintended positive side-effect of the crisis was that it had a favourable influence on emissions trends of Ireland and Spain, both of which climbed up 10 ranks in the emission trend indicator, the authors say in their report.
The first three places in the index are blank – as usual – “as no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change”. Sweden is back at the top, in fourth place.
“The UK, ranked fifth, has shown strong elements of environmental leadership, but recently there have been worrying signs . . . that the UK is stepping back from its efforts, which has kept them from achieving the top position”, the report says.
The index evaluates and ranks the 58 highest-emitting countries based on carbon emissions and climate policy. This year, more than 200 experts in these countries – including Pat Finnegan of Grian – helped analyse national policies.
Overall the ranking of countries was “influenced by the worldwide economic crisis”, which resulted in emerging economies surging ahead of many developed countries in terms of carbon emissions. Brazil lost its top ranking last year for this reason.
Five of the 10 biggest emitters – Iran, in 60th place, China (57), Russia (56), Canada (54) and the US (52) – were rated with “very poor performance”. Among them, China was the only one with a good policy rating, said Jan Burck of Germanwatch.
The three lowest-ranking countries this year are Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Iran, mostly due to “discouraging” emissions levels and trends. The US climbed two places, mainly due to the effect of the recession reducing its “very high” emissions.
“This year’s index shows worrying results – the worldwide addiction to coal has not been stopped, but rather increased,” said Mr Burck said. If this trend continued, it would “lock in high-carbon development, giving the world “no chance” of limiting warming.
Wendel Trio, director of Can Europe, said: “The EU and other constructive developed and developing countries, including the emerging economies, cannot wait for the US, Canada and other laggards any longer.
“The EU plays an important role in the development of this ‘coalition of the responsible’. Even while the results show clear differences between EU member states, the EU needs to unite behind the goal to cut its emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2020.”
South Africa, host of the UN’s 17th climate conference, is ranked 38th. Of the country the report says: “On the one hand, emissions are increasing, but on the other hand, experts gave it a relatively good national policy rating.”
