ATHENS – Greece has jumped 10 places to rank 24th among 60 countries in this year’s Climate Change Performance Index 2022 issued by Germanwatch, CAN International and the NewClimate Institute. The index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 60 countries and the European Union.

The EU Has slipped six places in the rankings since the previous year.

The factors that contributed to Greece rising from 34th to 24th in the list included a programme to phase out lignite coal, the new climate law announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his speech at the COP26 in Glasgow, Greece’s revised National Plan for Energy and Climate designed to adapt to the more ambitious EU emissions targets for 2030, a programme subsidising the purchase of electric vehicles and legislation on forests.

The Climate Change Performance Index compares 60 countries and the EU in the areas of greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy sources, energy use and climate policy, thus providing a comprehensive overview of the current efforts and progress of the countries analysed. Besides, it measures how well countries are on track to meet the global goals of the Paris Agreement by evaluating the current status and future targets of each category with reference to a well-below 2°C pathway.

According to the authors of the report, no country achieved a satisfactory performance in all these areas and, for this reason, they left the first three places in the ranking empty. So highest-placed Denmark ranks fourth, followed by Sweden and Norway, while the oil-producing countries Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan rank last.

“No country performs well enough in all CCPI index categories to achieve an overall very high rating. The first three positions in the overall ranking therefore remain empty. This says a great deal. Even if all countries were as committed as the current frontrunners, it would still not be enough to prevent dangerous climate change,” the authors noted, adding that the countries with high rankings have no reason “to sit back and relax” as even greater efforts are needed to stay on track and keep global warming under 2C.