Germany has slipped down the climate action ranking for the third consecutive year, with the former green leader now being outperformed by Brazil, Columbia and Romania.
In its worst performance since 2019, the country fell to place 25 and received a "medium" rating overall on the yearly Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which assesses efforts to curb global warming in 64 countries plus the European Union.
Still, "a number of countries have been making good progress for years," said Jan Burck, CCPI lead author in a statement. Denmark is leading the way across all four categories assessed — energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and national climate policy. A total of 15 states, including Lithuania, Chile, and Morocco, received an overall "high" rating, which is two more than last year.
The European Union also moved up a spot, while Hungary jumped 21 places after the defeat of former prime minister Viktor Orban's government, which had repeatedly vetoed EU climate plans, dismissing them as a "utopian fantasy."
The top three positions on the CCPI remained vacant again this year, as no country has yet done enough to meet global climate goals aimed at preventing worsening weather extremes and climate damage.
"We are seeing a striking contrast," said Burck.
