IANS
Bonn, Nov 15: India has been ranked 14th in Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2018 out of 56 nations and the European Union by environmental organisation Germanwatch, an improvement from its 20th rank last year, for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by transforming its electricity sector using green technology. China, with its high emissions and growing energy use, still ranks 41st.
“The gap in mid and long-term ambition of the evaluated countries is still too high. In GHG emissions, we see better 2030 targets in countries like Norway or India and in Norway, Sweden or New Zealand we see comparably good targets for renewable energy,” said Niklas Hohne of Germany’s NewClimate Institute and co-author of CCPI.
“No country has an outstanding energy efficiency target. Saudi Arabia and the United States generally have to drastically raise their 2030 ambitions,” he said.
The world aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 per cent and increase energy efficiency by at least 27 per cent by 2030.
The report was made public on Wednesday during the UN Climate Change negotiations (COP23) in Bonn.
Fifty-six countries and the EU are together responsible for about 90 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the report, global energy transition is picking up speed but no country is doing enough. “We see a strong commitment to the global climate targets of the Paris Agreement. Countries now have to deliver specific measures,” Jan Burck, co-author of CCPI at Germanwatch, said.
Foreseeing positive developments on adopting renewables and energy efficiency, co-author Stephan Singer from the Beirut-based Climate Action Network said, “The data show encouraging growth in renewable energy, cheaper prices for solar and wind energy and successes in saving energy in many countries. This was responsible for stabilising global energy CO2 emissions in the last three years.”
“But progress is too slow as growing oil and gas consumption is higher than the reduction in coal use.”
The top three rankings are still unoccupied as the report says no country is on a Paris-compatible path yet that aims to keep the average global temperature rise well below two degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
About one degree of that rise has already happened, underlining the urgency to cut greenhouse gases, climate experts say.
Sweden ranks fourth in this year’s CCPI, following the empty top three. Relatively low emission and a very high trend in renewable energy gave Lithuania fifth rank.
Germany, the co-host country for Fiji’s COP23 Presidency, lands in the midfield of the CCPI 2018 at 22.
The country has put a lot of efforts into international climate diplomacy and climate action. “Germany’s targets are relatively strong but the last government failed on delivering concrete measures to reduce emissions domestically,” Burck added.
After withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Agreement and dismantling major climate legislation of the previous government, the US finds itself at the bottom five of the ranking at 56.
The bottom three of the index is formed by Korea (58), Iran (59) and Saudi Arabia (rank 60), all of which are showing hardly any progress in reducing emissions.
Two years after the world united around the Paris Agreement and a year after its entry into force, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 197 parties have reconvened for the 23rd annual climate change talks in Bonn till November 17.
The talks, which began on November 6, are expected to take a number of decisions to bring the Paris Agreement to life, including meaningful progress on agreement implementation guidelines, to cut greenhouse gases.
