A recent report by Climate Action Network Europe infers that not a single EU country is showing enough ambition or progress in reducing carbon emissions, with the vast majority unlikely to meet targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
The study assesses 29 EU countries in their role in setting climate and energy targets and policies, progress on reducing carbon emissions, and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. The results rank countries by good, bad and ugly; any nation scoring below 50% is not doing enough to meet the Paris Climate Goals.
The top performing countries ranked as good are Sweden, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The report notes Sweden’ (score 70%) progress on domestic climate and energy targets, high share of renewable energy and pushing ambitious targets at an EU level; though highlights progress is needed to reduce transport related emissions.
The UK is ranked as bad (score 55%) for its climate action and ambition, along with Belgium, Denmark and Germany. The report argues that despite their relative wealth, these countries have remained silent or vague on the need to accelerate the zero-carbon transition.
Countries ranked as ugly, such Estonia, Ireland and Poland are credited to be unambitious when it comes to climate policies.
The authors recommend that EU countries need to urgently and substantially increase their actions to pursue efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.