Portugal was ranked 14th in the Climate Change Performance Index, CCPI in its original acronym (Climate Change Performance Index), which was released today at COP27, taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. It is an instrument that reflects the performance of each country's climate policies.
Due to its classification, Portugal climbed two places in the ranking compared to last year and is therefore part of the countries with a “high” rating. This is the second highest rating in the index, with “very high” remaining vague (out of five ratings: very high, high, medium, low and very low).
in the calculation of CCPI, progress on climate mitigation enters the 59 countries with the highest emissions.
According to the environmental association ZERO, which is participating in COP27, “the CCPI is an important tool to increase transparency in international climate policy and allows the comparison of climate protection efforts and the progress made by each country”.
The aim of the index is to “put political and social pressure on countries that, until now, have failed to take ambitious measures that contribute enough to global climate stability, and also to highlight countries with the best climate practices. It should be noted that, since last year, Portugal has risen two places, from 16th to 14th position, but it can and must do better».
Dependence on fossil fuels, mirrored in the current energy crisis, continues to be a reality reflected in the index, despite the fact that there are countries with good performance that have made progress in climate mitigation by focusing on energy efficiency and renewable sources.
As last year, the top three places in the ranking remain vacant, as no country is fully aligned with the goal of keeping global warming within the 1,5°C threshold.
O CCPI Index it is based on the latest set of statistics provided by the International Energy Agency for the year 2020 (the latest available) and an expert assessment of current performance with regard to climate policies, at national and international scale.
ZERO explains that Portugal rises positions thanks to the closing of coal plants and the climate-based law, but has a poor performance in the transport, forestry and agriculture sector.
The result in the category of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions was the one that improved the most, now recording a medium level (categories are evaluated with high, medium and low levels), due to the downward trend in emissions in recent years. years old. The Energy Use, Renewable Energy and Climate Policy categories also receive an average rating, namely due to the high share of renewable energy in electricity use and the low per capita energy use.
However, there has been a strong increase in centralized photovoltaic capacity, which is positive, but a greater effort is also needed in the decentralization of this energy source.
The Climate Framework Law, published in February 2022, includes greater ambition of the targets by establishing a 55% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 (compared to 2005 levels) and assessing the achievement of climate neutrality in 2045 instead of 2050, which contributed to improving Portugal's position in the CCPI.
But ZERO considers that there is a lack of ambition in some areas, namely with regard to subsidies to fossil fuels, whose end is only foreseen for 2030. In addition, it is still necessary to put into practice the real implementation and application of the law, the that takes a while to happen.
The total elimination of the use of coal in energy production, with the closing of the Pego plant in November 2021, is a positive point to note, allowing to reduce emissions in the energy sector. However, emissions in the transport sector are not contained, due to the lack of effective policies for the sector, namely in the transfer of modal share from private car transport to public transport.
ZERO also points to the insufficiency in promoting sustainable agriculture, since intensive agriculture and monoculture continue to receive many incentives, and to the lack of effective measures to prevent forest fires, which continue to devastate the country every summer and jeopardize biodiversity and emission targets.
Countries featured in the index
Countries such as Chile, Morocco and India have performed well on this index and are catching up with countries that traditionally score higher, such as Denmark and Sweden.
This year, Chile adopted a law that sets out the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and includes concrete measures in this regard. India, on the other hand, benefits from very low levels of emissions and energy use per capita, and has also invested in renewable energies.
The biggest polluters, China and the United States, continue to occupy some of the lowest places on the CCPI. Due to new investments in coal-fired power plants, China recorded the biggest drop of all in the ranking, despite the strong adoption of renewable energy.
The United States, on the other hand, managed to climb some places due to the new climate action policies announced by Joe Biden, combined with concrete implementation measures. However, their emissions per capita, as well as the share of renewable energy per capita, remain poorly ranked.
Denmark is the leading country in the ranking of this index due to its ambitious climate policies in national and international terms. However, it is still not on track to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2025 and needs stronger measures in terms of energy efficiency.
In contrast, countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan have the lowest rankings in the ranking of countries, due to the low weight of renewable energies and their heavy dependence on oil.
Russia, Turkey, Hungary and Brazil also perform very poorly in the climate policy category. Russia even has a score of zero in this category and Brazil has suffered a setback in climate ambitions under President Bolsonaro. But a turning point is expected here with the new President Lula da Silva and that he will apply concrete measures to implement new policies, namely with regard to the protection of the Amazon and the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels.
Australia, thanks to a more progressive new government, is no longer at the bottom of the index table, despite continuing to have a very poor climate performance.
The European Union
The European Union was also assessed as a whole and rose three places in the index, mainly due to improvements in the climate policy category with the implementation of the ambitious Goal 55 package.
Despite this, there are differences in the performance of their Member States, with Poland and Hungary registering very low places, as opposed to Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Spain was one of the countries that rose the most in the Index, having recorded improvements in all categories. France, on the other hand, dropped significantly, due to its low use of renewable energies and, in terms of international policy, for its opposition to climate finance, namely with regard to losses and damages in countries affected by extreme phenomena.
What is the Climate Change Performance Index?
O Climate Change Performance Index (Climate Change Performance Index) is the responsibility of the German environmental non-governmental organization Germanwatch and the NewClimate Institute, and is published in conjunction with the International Climate Action Network (CAN International).
The index lists 59 countries and the European Union, collectively responsible for around 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The four categories evaluated are: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) (40% weight in the final classification), Renewable Energy (20%), Energy Use (20%) and Climate Policy (20%).
The latter is based on expert assessments from non-governmental organizations and think tanks in the respective countries. Within the Emissions, Renewable Energy and Energy Use categories, the CCPI also assesses what measures are or are not being taken towards the Paris Agreement's global objective of containing global warming well below 2°C.
Comments