Is There a Race to Climate Neutrality?

In the 2nd episode of Planet A’s fourth season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Lutz Weischer, Head of Policy for the NGO Germanwatch.  

Germanwatch works on a wide range of environmental issues, but is perhaps best known for its annual publication of “CCPI” - the Climate Change Performance Index.  

As evident in numerous international assessments, the world is currently not on track to limit the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees celsius and climate action is urgently needed.  

Thus, the CCPI aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries. 

In this episode, Mr. Weischer explains how the CCPI compares the climate policies and actions of different countries. The CCPI is unusual in the way that the top-ranked country is in fourth place. Germanwatch argues that no country performs well enough to be ranked and achieve an overall very high rating. Accordingly, the first three positions in the overall ranking therefore remain empty as even though all countries were as committed as the current frontrunners, it would still not be enough to prevent dangerous climate change. 

The index is produced in collaboration with the think tank NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network (CAN) - a global network of more than 1,300 civil society organizations in over 130 countries.