{"id":271450,"date":"2025-11-19T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271450\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:25:09","slug":"countries-step-up-on-climate-action-as-big-emitters-hesitate-dw-11-18-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271450\/","title":{"rendered":"Countries step up on climate action as big emitters hesitate \u2013 DW \u2013 11\/18\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

A decade on from the Paris Climate Agreement<\/a>, countries are making uneven-but-visible climate progress\u00a0as per capita emissions edge downward, renewable energy surges, and more than 100 countries adopt net-zero targets, the latest Climate Change Performance Index has found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the report says momentum is still falling\u00a0short of what’s\u00a0needed to meet the Paris goal of holding global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius<\/a> (3.6 F) \u2014 and ideally 1.5 C \u2014 above preindustrial levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To stay within those limits, the world must halve\u00a0greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, rapidly phase out fossil fuels and substantially\u00a0increase climate\u00a0financing.<\/p>\n

“Our index shows significantly more countries than before with good or even very good results in individual categories such as\u00a0renewable energies,”<\/a>\u00a0said\u00a0one of the report’s authors, Thea Uhlich, from the environmental NGO Germanwatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“However, we also see that the positive trends for renewable energies and electrification started too late for the major emitters \u2014 the G20 countries\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to achieve the necessary emission reductions,” Uhlich said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, the United States was rated very poorly in all categories, which include\u00a0per capita emissions, expanding renewables, energy use and climate policy.\u00a0Under President Donald Trump<\/a>, the country slipped eight spots to down to 65th place on the overall ranking, which takes all four categories into account.<\/p>\n

Uhlich called the decline “remarkable.” Only the petrostates Iran and Saudi Arabia ranked\u00a0lower.<\/p>\n

The ranking is compiled annually by Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute policy think tank, and\u00a0CAN International, a global network of civil society organizations.\u00a0It evaluates 63 countries and the EU, which together account for over 90% of the global emissions causing planetary heating.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

No country ranks ‘very high’<\/p>\n

The first three places in the index remain empty again this year because no country fully aligns with the Paris targets. But there were some bright spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“While we cannot attest to any country having a very good climate<\/a> mitigation performance overall, there are pioneers in some categories who are demonstrating ambitious performance,” said\u00a0ranking\u00a0author Niklas H\u00f6hne, of the Berlin-based NewClimate Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoMorocco is investing in public transport, including electric buses Image: AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pakistan, for example, is the only country to achieve a “very high” rating for per capita emissions, which represent the average emissions per person in a country.\u00a0Morocco achieved a “high” rating for renewables, has low emissions and invests heavily in public transport, according to the ranking.\u00a0Norway, Denmark and Sweden are the front-runners in green energy expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the overall ranking,\u00a013 countries received a “high” rating. \u00a0Denmark<\/a>\u00a0topped the list, followed by\u00a0the UK,<\/a> \u00a0Morocco<\/a>\u00a0and Chile.\u00a0Portugal came in 12th,\u00a0and Pakistan placed\u00a015th, followed by\u00a0Romania, which\u00a0was the last country on the list to achieve a “high” rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EU and Germany fall behind in climate ranking<\/p>\n

The report rates 18 countries as\u00a0“medium” performers. The EU countries achieved\u00a0mixed results, and the bloc as a whole\u00a0slipped three places to\u00a020th\u00a0on the overall ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Germany<\/a>\u00a0placed\u00a022nd\u00a0\u2014\u00a0its worst rating in\u00a0six years. The reasons for its poorer performance include\u00a0backsliding on climate policy, a focus on natural gas, which emits greenhouse gases when burned, and a lack of measures to reduce pollution from\u00a0transport and buildings. Germany only ranks “high” in terms of its energy use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Germany’s government “must set a decisive course in the coming weeks to get back on track, ” said\u00a0Jan Burck, a report author and senior adviser on low-carbon strategies at Germanwatch.<\/p>\n

Report COP30 Brazil: Protect forests while drilling for oil?<\/p>\n

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n

India also slid down the ranking\u00a0to 23rd because of\u00a0rising emissions and the lack of a phase-out plan for coal. Brazil improved\u00a0slightly to\u00a027th place, helped by gains in\u00a0renewable energy\u00a0and climate diplomacy and despite planned new oil projects in the Amazon.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Climate laggards and a trend reversal in China<\/p>\n

Seventeen countries are rated “low” on the index and 16 “very low.”\u00a0Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States and Russia are all at the bottom of the\u00a0table.<\/p>\n

“We have a group of petrostates that want to continue the fossil age at all costs\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0Arab states, the USA, Russia, and to some extent Canada and Australia,” Burck said, adding that most G20 countries do not share that stance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

China<\/a>\u00a0also ranks “very low,” in 54th place, because of\u00a0its expansion of polluting fossil fuels, particularly coal.\u00a0At the same time, it\u00a0is a pioneer in renewables<\/a> and is charging ahead in electric mobility. In 2024, half of all cars sold in the country were electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though emissions grew worldwide, early 2025 data suggests\u00a0a slight drop in\u00a0China’s\u00a0CO2. A continuation of this trend “would be a hopeful sign for the future,” according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were “clear signs that the peak of emissions in China could soon be reached,” H\u00f6hne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is now crucial that China not only continues to expand green technologies<\/a> in record time, but also rapidly phases out fossil fuels,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

China and\u00a0Brazil<\/a>, host of this year’s UN climate conference,<\/a> both received a “high” rating in the climate policy category, which\u00a0assesses\u00a0national emissions policies and targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article was originally written in German.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decade on from the Paris Climate Agreement, countries are making uneven-but-visible climate progress\u00a0as per capita emissions edge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-271450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}