India’s climate actions fourth-strongest, US and China lag behind: Germanwatch report

Like last year, Denmark’s performance was rated the best and it earned the fourth rank. The other two countries with better performance than India this year were Estonia and the Philippines.

The index assesses the performance of the countries on four indicators – the country’s total emissions, renewable energy deployment, energy use, and climate policy.

India received a high ranking on the greenhouse gas emissions and energy use indicators, and a medium rating on climate policy and renewable energy deployment.

“While India is the world’s most populous country, it has relatively low per capita emissions. Our data shows that in the per capita GHG category, the country is on track to meet a benchmark of well below 2 degree Celsius. While it shows a slightly positive trend in the share of renewable energy, this trend is advancing too slowly,” the Germanwatch report said.

Interestingly, the UAE – the host of the 28th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties – has been ranked among the bottom three, along with Iran and Saudi Arabia. The report said UAE’s per capita emissions were among the highest in the world, and its national climate targets were inadequate. Besides, the UAE continued to develop and finance new oil and gas projects domestically as well as abroad.

Climate actions of China and the United States, the top two emitters of the world, were also rated poor. China was placed in the 51st position, while the US was ranked 57th.

“China is among the 20 countries with the largest developed oil and gas reserves. It is also among the nine countries responsible for 90 per cent of global coal production. China also plans to increase its gas production by 2030. This is incompatible with the 1.5 degree Celsius target,” the report said.

It noted the climate-friendly provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States but said the country needed to do much more, particularly on the phase-out of fossil fuels. “If the Inflation Reduction Act is implemented as planned, the United States will likely increase its ranking in the future CCPI editions,” the report said.

The Germanwatch report noted that India needed to agree to a faster phase-out of coal, reduce reliance on gas, and further expand its renewable energy capacity. Also, it needed to advance its 2070 net zero target.