The Paris Climate Agreement has given renewable energies and energy efficiency a global tailwind. The Climate Protection Index 2017 presented today by Germanwatch shows a stable upward trend. Overall, however, the global energy transition is still proceeding too slowly to make its contribution to the Paris climate goals, warns the environment and development organisation Germanwatch. The election of Donald Trump as US president could slow down or even slow down the necessary transformation in the USA.
Overall, the twelfth edition of the Climate Protection Index gives cause for cautious optimism: "The conditions for a global energy transition have never been better than at present. This is mainly due to the further decreasing costs of renewable energies and efficiency technologies," says Jan Burck of Germanwatch, lead author of the Index. "Investments in fossil energies are becoming increasingly risky. There are no longer any understandable excuses for governments to hesitate in implementing the Paris climate agreement. Some states have recognised this, others have not yet caught up."
To the Climate Protection Index:
The Climate Protection Index (currently the twelfth edition in a row) was developed as an instrument for more transparency and comparability in international climate policy. Based on standardised criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 58 countries, which together are responsible for more than 90% of energy-related emissions worldwide. The first three places have remained vacant every year so far, as no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change. Denmark was on the verge of becoming the first country to break into the top 3. This was prevented by the recent shift to a much less ambitious climate policy (More on methods and calculation in the brochure "The Climate Change Performance Index - Background and Methodology").
Climate Protection Index 2017 (in English, summary in German as well as maps and graphics): https://germanwatch.org/ksi
Keywords:
DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, UN (United Nations), Environmental policy
Solarserver reports on the world's largest solar heating plant, which has been in operation in China since 2016. It consists of parabolic trough collectors.
