Climate Change Performance Index 2021: Morocco Ranks 7th

Bonn – Morocco was ranked 7 out of 57 on the Climate Change Performance Index 2021, published on Monday.

The Kingdom lost one spot compared to the 2020 ranking.

The CCPI analyzes and compares climate protection across 57 countries (plus EU as a whole) with the highest emissions. Together these countries account for 90 percent of global emissions. The index aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enable comparison of mitigation efforts and progress made by individual countries.

The Index is published by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network.

Two other developing countries are also among the top ten in the ranking: Chile (9th) and India (10th).

According to Stephan Singer, Senior Advisor at the Global Energy Policies of Climate Action Network: “The largest fossil fuel exporting and producing countries representing less than 10% of global population, the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Australia are rightly at the bottom of the table. They are among the highest carbon polluters and the highest energy consumers. None of them have any useful federal climate policy in place to reduce carbon pollution. That shows the influential power of the fossil fuel industries in these countries. On the other hand, we see many smaller nations like Portugal, Morocco, Chile and others in Europe which perform much better. As civil society, to combat the climate crisis effectively, we need to dismantle the business model of the fossil fuel companies worldwide.”

Sweden (4th place, category “high”) remains an international frontrunner in climate protection for the fourth year in a row.

“However, Sweden is no “climate role model” either. Like every other country so far it is not yet on a path to achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement (which is also why the first three places of the CCPI remain vacant),” the index report underlines.

“On the other hand, Sweden is setting standards in greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and climate policy (rated in the top group for each). The very high energy consumption per capita (49th place) prevents the country from achieving an even better evaluation. In the overall ranking, the United Kingdom (5th) and Denmark (6th) follow. Portugal (from 25th to 17th place) and New Zealand (from 37th to 28th) are among the biggest climbers. Japan also climbed six places (from 51st to 45th) but still receives the rating “low” (last year: “very low”). On the other hand, Slovenia (from 44th to 51st), Spain (from 34th to 41st), Belgium (from 35th to 40th) and Greece (from 28th to 34th) have shown the most decline,” the source adds.