This year, Belgium lost two places in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). This international index ranks the efforts for climate change made by 58 countries. Belgium is now in 16th position, the environmental organizations Bond Beter Leefmilieu, Greenpeace, Inter-Environment Wallonia and WWF say. It’s the tenth time that Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and the organization Germanwatch have done this ranking. Belgium has fallen in the ranking because “greenhouse gas emissions have not gone down enough and the federal and regional governments continue to ignore their climate policy”, say the organizations in a press release.
Belgium gets a good score for climate diplomacy, the development of renewable energy sources and improvement in greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. But it fails on energy consumption per person, greenhouse gas emissions from industry and transport, and the climate policy at federal and regional level, the press release adds.
“The Belgian governments must work on energy efficiency”, says Noé Lecoq from Inter-Environment Wallonia. “An ambitious policy to help a structural reduction in energy requirements would be good for the economy, the environment and fuel poverty. But, this section of the Belgian energy policy is suffering due to austerity budget cuts”.
Denmark, Sweden, and Great Britain get the best scores in the Climate Change Performance Index.
(Source: Belga)
