Belgium is still a “medium-performing” country in the fight against climate change even if it has moved up by one point, according to the Climate Change Performance Index 2019, compiled by environmental NGOs and published on Monday on the occasion of COP24 in Katowice, Poland. The index, published each year at the UN climate conference, is drawn up with the help of 350 energy and climate experts, most of them members of environmental NGOs. It ranks 56 countries and the European Union based on 14 criteria in four categories: greenhouse gas emissions; renewable energy use; energy efficiency and the political climate.
This year, Belgium is ranked 31st, with a climate performance that is still considered medium.
"This ranking confirms that Belgium is stagnating in a mediocre position on the climate issue,” commented Noé Locoq, climate head of mission at Inter-environnement Wallonie. “There is an urgent need to place climate at the centre of political action and rebuild Belgium’s credibility. There is a need to break with a certain schizophrenia and seriously assess the impact of political decisions on the climate.”
As in previous years, the first three places in the ranking remained vacant, since no country was judged by the report’s authors to have pursued a climate policy that was resolute enough. Fourth place, awarded to the best-performing country, went again to Sweden, followed by Morocco and Lithuania.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, both judged “very low performing”, occupy the last two slots in the ranking.
The Brussels Times
