Renewable surge in 2023 fails to curb worldwide emissions: Report

New Delhi: The world witnessed rapid progress in the renewable energy sector in 2023, but the slow speed of reductions in global emissions rendered it ineffective, a new report released at COP29 in Baku has highlighted.
India ranked 10th, a drop from seventh last year, in the analysis — Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI 2025) co-authored by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute, and CAN International — which gave the country an overall score of 67.99 out of 100.
CCPI compares the climate change mitigation efforts of 63 countries and the EU, which together account for 90% of the world’s GHG emissions.
Like last year, Denmark remained on the top spot (4th) with a score of 78.37, and was also the only country to achieve high performance in the climate policy rating. It was followed not-so-closely by the Netherlands with a score of 69.60, and the UK with a score of 69.29 — a big jump from last year’s 62.36 which put it in the 20th spot.
The UK’s “pledge against new licences for fossil fuel projects played a key role in its rise”, the report said.
“Nevertheless, there is still massive resistance from the fossil fuel lobby. Countries should not fall deeper into the fossil trap,” Jan Burck (Germanwatch), author of the CCPI, said.
The mixed results showed that these efforts were not visible everywhere.
Argentina, for instance, dropped to the 59th position, perhaps reflecting its newly elected president’s denial of human-made climate crisis despite scientific consensus. Interestingly, the country pulled out its delegation from the ongoing climate summit in the first week itself.
The four bottom placed countries in index are Iran (67th), Saudi Arabia (66th), the United Arab Emirates (65th) and Russia (64th). All four are among the largest oil and gas producers worldwide. The share of renewables in their energy mix is lower than 3%. “These countries show no sign of departing from fossil fuels as a business model,” the analysis said.
The UAE, with a score of 19.54, is an example of how petro-states, despite their lofty pledges, continue to stall climate action. The country held the presidency of last year’s climate summit.
The ranking also re-establishes the need for a better process for selection of COP presidencies. “We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris Agreement,” an open letter by scientists, advocates and policy leaders to the executive secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat Simon Stiell, on November 15 had said.
The CCPI identifies two critical factors – implementation gaps and ambition gaps.
Overall, only 22, including India and the UK, of the 64 surveyed CCPI countries (including the EU) were on track for meeting their implementation goals, while 42 were lagging.
Among the biggest emitters, China ranked 55th despite an unprecedented boom in renewable energy and emissions appearing to have peaked, and the US, the second biggest emitter, was in 57th place, with the report calling for more investment in renewables and clean transport as well as an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Fourteen G20 countries receive an overall low or very low. The G20 is particularly responsible for drastically cutting emissions, as its members account for more than 75% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea (63th) are still the G20’s worst-performing countries and receive an overall very low.
“The world is at a turning point. Peak of global emissions is closely in sight. Now it is crucial that we start a rapid decline. Cutting emissions drastically is the only measure that can prevent further dangerous consequences of climate change. Time is running and we urgently need an emission turnaround,” Prof Niklas Höhne of the NewClimate Institute, and co-author of CCPI, said.