Climate protection rating: Switzerland drops to 15th place
In the latest climate protection country comparison, Switzerland ranks 15th, which means that it has lost one place compared to the previous year and is behind Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Morocco and Chile.
For the Climate Change Performance Index CCPI), the German environmental organization Germanwatch and the NewClimate Institute annually compare the climate protection performance of 60 countries and the EU as a whole, which together are responsible for more than 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The latest rating was presented today at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
The CCPI list is headed by Denmark. It is remarkable that the country has replaced its dependence on coal with renewable energies within two decades, according to the CCPI platform. Switzerland falls back in the ranking to position 15 (cf. justification here). The country lost ground in particular in the area of national climate policy: the rejection of the CO2 law cost the Alpine country valuable points and eleven places in this sub-criterion.
Evil accounting trick
Georg Klingler, climate expert at Greenpeace Switzerland: "We should not be proud of our 15th place. Switzerland has the capacity to play a pioneering role in climate protection. But its climate protection ambitions are far too low for that. Instead of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions at home, Switzerland is looking for ever more ways to offset CO2 abroad. This is a nasty accounting trick, with which we do not contribute to solving the climate crisis, but only defend our climate-damaging lifestyle. So it's not surprising that Switzerland gets a poor rating for its general climate policy."
"Moreover, the climate protection rating clearly shows that no country in the world is on course to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. This is frightening. Switzerland must finally accept its responsibility and give climate protection top priority - and support other countries even more in tackling the climate crisis. The wealth of our country is based on the fact that we were able to emit a lot of CO2 in the past. Now Switzerland must do justice and significantly increase its contribution to climate finance."
rs/ Press release Greenpeace
CCPI Climate Change Performance Index 2022
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