Knowledge Nugget: Climate Change Performance Index — A must know for UPSC Exam
(Relevance: Climate change is an important topic, and UPSC has previously directly asked questions about the publication of important indices and reports. Thus, knowing about the Climate Change Performance Index 2025 becomes essential.
Despite being the central topic of debate for decades, climate change continues to accelerate, global temperature continues to inch towards 'tipping points', and greenhouse gas concentrations rise at unprecedented levels. In this context, knowing the findings of the Climate Change Performance Index 2025 becomes important, as it provides the picture of the efforts of various countries in addressing the challenge of climate change.
1. The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an independent monitoring 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. It is published annually since 2005.
2. The CCPI is published by Germanwatch, CAN International, and the NewClimate Institute. According to the official website of Germanwatch, the CCPI assesses each country's performance in four categories:
(i) GHG Emissions (40% of the overall ranking),
(ii) Renewable Energy (20%),
(iii) Energy Use (20%) and
(iv) Climate Policy (20%).
3. CCPI also answers the question of the extent to which each country is taking appropriate action in the areas of Emissions, Renewable energy and Energy use in order to achieve the climate goals set in Paris.
1. In CCPI 2025, the top three positions remain vacant, with no single country ranking 'very high' on all parameters for climate change mitigation in 2025.
2. Denmark has retained its rank as the top country (4th place) in the CCPI Index 2025, earning a very high rating in the renewable energy category, a high rating in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate policy, and a medium rating in energy use.
3. Denmark is followed by the Netherlands in 5th place and the United Kingdom in 6th place in this year's CCPI.
Top 10 countries ranking high in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2025
Source: Climate Change Performance Index 2025. Note: None of the countries earned positions one through three. No country is doing enough to mitigate hazardous climate change.
4. Out of 64 countries responsible for over 90% of global GHG emissions, only 22 are making progress in the Climate Change Performance Index 2025, while 42 are falling behind.
5. Notably, G20 countries account for over 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, with 14 of their countries receiving a low or very low CCPI score; however, India and the United Kingdom are two G20 countries on track with low GHG emissions per capita.
6. Contrastingly, countries like China, the United States of America (USA), Canada, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and more have been ranked very low.
Bottom 10 countries ranking low in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2025
Source: Climate Change Performance Index 2025
1. Slipping down to two positions, India ranks tenth in the 2025 CCPI, remaining among the top achievers. India ranks high in the GHG emissions and energy use categories, medium in climate policy, and low in renewable energy.
2. India has made significant progress in renewable energy policy, particularly through large-scale solar power plants and the implementation of the Rooftop Solar Scheme. Despite these encouraging achievements, India remains largely dependent on coal, and experts believe its phase-out is moving too slowly.
1. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a global group of scientific experts, released an assessment report on the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health – known as the Nexus Report – last year.
2. This was a first-of-a-kind report looking at the interconnections between these multiple crises. The group examined five major challenges — climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, and health risks.
3. The Nexus report highlighted the strong interlinkages between the five identified global challenges. Its key takeaway is that responses to all these challenges need to be harmonised so that positive actions taken on any one of these do not result in negative impacts on others, something that is quite possible, as exemplified in several current approaches.
4. For example, an attempt to scale up food production, a positive action to deal with hunger and malnutrition, could have the unintended consequence of increasing stress on land and water resources and biodiversity.
5. The report argues that it was important to adopt synergistic approaches that deliver benefits across the spectrum. Examples of such response measures included restoration of carbon-rich ecosystems such as forests, soils and mangroves, effective management of biodiversity to reduce risks of diseases spreading from animals to humans, promotion of sustainable healthy diets, and reliance on nature-based solutions wherever possible.
Consider the following statements with regard to the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2025:
1. The top three positions remain vacant, with no single country ranking 'very high' on all parameters for climate change mitigation.
2. It assesses each country's performance in GHG Emissions, Renewable Energy, Energy Use and Climate Policy.
3. Denmark has retained its rank as the top country (4th place) in the CCPI Index 2025.
How many of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None
(Sources: Climate Change Performance Index: Top and bottom 10 countries in 2025, germanwatch.org, ccpi.org)
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Roshni Yadav is a Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express. She is an alumna of the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she pursued her graduation and post-graduation in Political Science. She has over five years of work experience in ed-tech and media. At The Indian Express, she writes for the UPSC section. Her interests lie in national and international affairs, governance, economy, and social issues. You can contact her via email: roshni.yadav@indianexpress.com ... Read More
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