Climate Change

With the war against Ukraine dragging on for over a month now, the vulnerabilities of the G7 and, particularly, of low- and middle-income countries have become increasingly visible. As leading industrialised countries and, historically, major contributors to the climate crisis, the G7 will need to live up to their responsibility to support countries in building resilience to climate impacts and other global crises. In this blog, we outline possibilities for the G7 to address the vulnerabilities in their own countries, and far beyond, to increase resilience against future crises while also supporting other nations.

The leading industrialised countries have a particular responsibility to address the climate crisis – but they failed to meet their former commitments. The German G7 presidency now offers the opportunity to take important steps towards a new paradigm for climate finance. Against that backdrop, this policy brief formulates five key asks to the G7 governments.

On the sixth African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) Summit on February 17-18, 2022, African and European Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have written a statement for a transformative and equal partnership between Africa and the EU with civil society involvement.

In July 2021, the European Commission proposed introducing an emissions trading system for transport and buildings. Does the proposal meet the requirements of effective climate action and social compatibility? Where should improvements be made? These questions are answered by the study “Criteria for an effective and socially just EU ETS 2 – Assessment of the EU Commission’s Proposal on an EU ETS for buildings & road transport (EU ETS 2)”, which was prepared by the Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft and the Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft on behalf of Germanwatch, Klima-Allianz Deutschland, WWF Deutschland and CAN Europe.

The outcome of the UN climate conference is one of ambivalence: while there is strong momentum for phasing out coal and pressure being placed on reluctant climate action, for the 1.5 degree limit to come within reach, China in particular needs to improve its climate target soon and the US needs to implement its very well. In addition, results on the issue of Loss and Damage are insufficient.

Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring tool for tracking the climate protection performance of 60 countries and the EU. It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.

The Climate Change Performance Index compares 60 countries and the EU in the areas of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Renewable Energies, 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. This brochure explains the background and methodology of the Climate Change Performance Index.

Scandinavian countries are leading the way in climate protection, together with Morocco and the United Kingdom. Leaders Denmark, Sweden and Norway occupy ranks four to six in the new Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2022, presented today by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and Climate Action Network (CAN). Places one to three again remain vacant because no country’s measures, thus far, have been sufficient to achieve an overall ‘very high’ rating with none following a path necessary to keep global warming within the 1.5°C limit.

COP26 is often considered the most important since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. Its context underlines the urgency: In the summer of 2021, people across the globe experienced extreme weather events and their consequences. The climate summit in Glasgow – in conjunction with the G20 summit shortly before – holds the potential to significantly accelerate climate protection efforts worldwide.

The G20 countries have a special role to combat climate change - they are responsible for a majority of global emissions. This year’s Climate Transparency Report shows that the efforts of the G20 countries are currently insufficient to limit climate change to the 1.5°C agreed in the Paris Agreement. After a short period of decline, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions are rebounding across the G20. However, a positive development is that the expansion of Renewable Energy capacities are rising.