Our country is among the top three most industrialized countries that have contributed to the reduction of climate change.
Not only bad news are coming from Portugal , our country stands out , according to a global study by the International Energy Agency , as one of the nations that have contributed most effective environmental measures to combat climate change . It is a rating that compares the 58 industrialized countries that are responsible for producing 90 % of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.
In practice implies that Portugal is the third best country to the extent that, like last year, the first three places are empty, as it was felt that there for now no country worthy of the podium with regard to climate protection. The objective index is increasing political and social pressure, particularly in countries that have forgotten the national labor with regard to climate change.
The best places were for three European countries: Denmark, the United Kingdom and Portugal (considered a surprise), the further ahead of Sweden (7th). Germany came out of the " top ten " , now occupying 19th place , greatly affected by the attitude it have taken on decisions about climate policy at European level in the trade of emissions and improving efficiency of the motor area . The worst countries are Canada, Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.
Denmark had the best performance for their recent trend of reducing emissions and climate policy considered exceptionally positive. In the European Union , the Netherlands climbs 18 positions thanks to the policies of the new government , Poland is the penultimate ( 45th ) , and the bottom of the table is Greece , with the worst performance ( 47th place ) .
China's performance has improved eight places (from 54th to 46th place) and shows positive signs since, despite an increase in emissions, is able to separate him from GDP growth, with major investments in renewable energy and being to limit the use coal, mainly because of the huge problems with air quality. India back to back six seats, given the strong trend of increasing emissions. The United States maintains the 43rd, at the expense of the economic crisis and also reduces the use of coal.
The revised methodology is mainly focused on objective indicators: 80 % of the assessment is based on indicators of emissions (30 % on the amounts of emissions and 30 % due to the recent evolution of emissions), efficiency (5 % associated with level of energy efficiency and 5 % with recent developments), and even the use of renewable energy (8 % due to the recent developments and 2 % depending on the weight of total primary energy from renewable sources).
The remaining 20 % based on the evaluation of more than 250 experts from the countries analyzed, with the Portuguese NGO Quercus intervened this criterion. The CCPI2014 focuses particularly on the issue of policy in the areas of renewable energies and energy efficiency, as it was felt that these are the main ways to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), and also considers the emissions associated with deforestation.
Like last year, there are, in the opinion of experts, a widespread dissatisfaction with the measures taken by each country to ensure, on a global scale, an increase of temperature below 2 ° C relative to pre - industrial era.
The report is available from Quercus http://varsovia.blogs.sapo.pt through
The blog and website www.quercus.pt.
