NEW DELHI: India slipped 13 ranks to figure at the 23rd position in the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which was released by environmental think tank Germanwatch on the sidelines of the ongoing UN climate conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil on Tuesday.It’s the biggest fall of India on the CCPI ranking in the recent past even as it remained in the top 10 high-performing countries for six years in a row till 2024. India, which ranked 31st in 2014, entered the top 10 list for the first time in 2019.The annual CCPI uses a standardised framework to compare the climate performance of 63 countries and the EU, which put together, account for over 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The performance of countries is assessed in four categories — GHG emission, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.India, in fact, is one of the biggest fallers in this year’s ranking despite performing well above global average in terms of increasing its renewable energy footprints. The country has, for instance, made substantial progress, achieving nearly 14% share of renewables in its total energy mix from 2015 to 2023. Besides, its non-fossil sources of energy now account for more than half of the country’s total electric power installed capacity (currently around 256 GW).What’s the reason behind India’s fall in the ranking? One of the authors of CCPI, Jan Burck of Germanwatch, attributed the decline to a combination of factors, including the steadily rising trend of the country’s GHG emissions in recent years. India, in fact, ranked last in terms of emission trends.“At the same time, energy consumption is increasing. India has also lost many places in climate policy rankings mainly due to its lack of a plan to phase out coal or even a concrete phase-out date. If India will reduce the building of new coal power plants and continue the promising trend for renewables, the country can achieve a much better ranking again next year,” said Burck.Denmark, the UK and Morocco took the lead in this year’s CCPI as fourth, fifth and sixth rankers in the list with the top three ranks remaining vacant like the previous years in absence of a perfect score to any country.China (54th), Russia (64th), the US (65th) and Saudi Arabia (67th) are the G20’s worst-performing countries, receiving an overall very low score. With Iran at 66th rank, Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia are the four last-placed countries in CCPI.Published annually by the Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute and the Climate Action Network since 2005, the CCPI tracks countries’ efforts to combat climate change. It serves as an independent tool that tracks the climate mitigation performance of 63 countries and the EU. “It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables comparison of climate mitigation efforts and progress made by individual countries,” said the CCPI 2026 report.
