Climate Change Performance Index by Country 2026

Individual countries have different policies for handling climate change. The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) quantifies the effectiveness of various countries’ policies. Good policies and actions within a nation can have a positive impact on mitigating climate change.

Understanding the Climate Change Performance Index

The Climate Change Performance Index only looks at 59 countries and the European Union, which the CCPI counted as one location. These 60 places account for 92% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Therefore, the policies of these countries have a greater impact on climate change.

For 2023, all countries evaluated underperformed and none achieved a CCPI score of very high. Therefore, the list of rankings has empty spaces for first through third places. Higher overall scores on the CCPI indicate countries that have better policies and actions in preventing climate change.

With the rankings, each country has its factor scores identified. These scores show the areas a country excels and where it needs improvement. Higher scores reflect better actions or policies that work positively to prevent climate change.

Factors Used to Find the Climate Change Performance Index for a Country

The CCPI combines a weighted average of four main factors. These factors include greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, renewable energy, and climate policy. The first of these factors accounts for 40% of the total score, and the other three have weights of 20% each.

Within each factor, the CCPI uses 14 components. For instance, climate policy has two parts, international and national policies. The other three factors have four components each.

Nations with the Highest Climate Change Performance Index Scores

As of 2023, Denmark placed fourth, which was the highest-scoring country on the CCPI due to a lack of nations with very high performance. It had a perfect score on its climate policy factor, which contributed to its overall high ranking.

The second-ranking country in fifth place was Sweden. Chile, Morocco, and India also scored well enough to rank in the top five spots, not counting the top three places on the list.

According to the 2023 report, even if all 60 locations had the same scores as these top five countries, international efforts would still fall short of preventing serious climate change.

Lowest Climate Change Performance Index Countries

The country with the lowest ranking of 63rd place, in 2023 was Iran. Its lowest factor score was for renewable energy.

Also near the bottom of the list were Saudia Arabia, Kazhakstan, South Korea, and Russia finished in places 62 to 59.