CCPI FAQs

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) was developed by Germanwatch as a tool for increasing transparency in international climate change policy. It aims to enable transparency in international climate politics and comparability of individual countries’ climate protection efforts and progress. The CCPI uses a framework of standardised criteria to assess and compare the climate performances of 57 countries and the EU (as of CCPI 2021). These collectively account for over 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Country rankings should clarify understanding of the complex web of separate responsibilities and fulfilled and broken promises, and encourage initial steps in international climate change. The index is publicly available online. It should simultaneously be a reminder and encouragement.

To be in the top three, a country should be doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change. This means the country must be on track with its emissions development (including and excluding LULUCF) compared with the benchmark of well below 2°C and has set a 2030 GHG target, which fulfils the same requirements. Even Sweden, the CCPI frontrunner, does not fulfil those requirements.

For more detailed information about specific countries, check the country site.

You can find further information on the CCPI’s methodology here.

The CCPI was first presented at the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) climate change conference in Montreal in 2005. After the international press conference at COP 13 in Bali, where the index was presented for the third time, there was already press coverage from over 100 countries. This reflected its increasing importance in international climate politics.
For CCPI 2013, the methodology was revised to include emissions from deforestation. Still, many sectors, such as agriculture, could not be included until 2017, as data were missing.
Another methodological change was made for CCPI 2018 to now include all GHG emissions. Countries’ targets are also evaluated in the areas of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Renewable Energy, and Energy Use. Since CCPI 2018, the index checks whether countries set their targets correctly and fulfil their promise made at the climate conference in Paris.

Most of the CCPI consists of quantitative data, used for the GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, and Energy Use categories. This data is taken from the International Energy Agency (IEA), PRIMAP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the national GHG inventories submitted to the UNFCCC. Most data can only be obtained 2 years after being recorded, so the data year is always 2 years prior to the index’s publication.
Data for the Climate Policy category is assessed annually using a comprehensive questionnaire. The result is the policy performance rating by climate and energy policy experts from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), universities, and think tanks within the evaluated countries that makes up the category.